Yabatech student’s death: FMC management combs Ibadan Poly for medical records

Management of the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Ebute-Metta has visited The Polytechnic, Ibadan, for medical records of Miss Charity Muatin Dazan, who died in the hospital about two weeks ago. Dazan, a Higher National Diploma II, HND, OTM Bilingual, student of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, allegedly died at the hospital unattended to. The deceased, had finished her Ordinary National Diploma, OND, at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, before moving to Yabatech for her HND programme.

Our correspondent gathered over the weekend from a source close to the hospital that the management had travelled to Ibadan in search of the medical records it could use to nail the deceased, who died due to rejection by the hospital management. Our source claimed that FMC management had visited Ibadan Poly before the panel of enquiry set up by the Federal Government to unravel the remote and immediate cause of the death of the deceased commenced sitting last Tuesday.

The source disclosed that the management of the hospital, led by Dr. (Mrs.) Yewande Jinadu as the medical director was looking at establishing the fact that the deceased was a sickle cell patient or engaged in abortion, which led to her losing much blood before being rushed to the hospital by her colleagues. But, when the enquiries by the hospital management proved abortive, our correspondent learnt that the management now entered into her file that she died of an acute fever. Besides, the source insisted that the medical director should be blamed for the lady’s death, claiming that the policy that no patient should be admitted unless a mandatory pretreatment fee of N30,000 was paid, was a contributory factor.

The source said the medical director’s policy of ‘no pay no treatment’, had caused many patients to leave the hospital and also affected its revenue drive. He also said several poor patients had died due to lack of attention when they could not pay the mandatory pre-treatment fee. The source said: “Go and ask some past patients, they will tell you what they have suffered in this hospital. Our policies are unfriendly to patients.” Attempts made to get the reaction of Mr. Harrison Etim, the admin manager of the hospital, who also doubles as its spokesman proved abortive. Calls made to his phone were not responded to while a text message equally sent to him was not replied.

But, Jinadu recently in a terse text message to our correspondent on the issue debunked the claim that she gave out the rules for rejection of patients brought to the hospital without money. She also said she was on leave when the incident happened. It would be recalled that Miss Dazan died when the management of the medical centre refused to attend to her because she could not pay the initial deposit of N35,000 when her costudents rushed her to the hospital after falling ill. Federal Ministry of Health has since set up a panel of enquiry, chaired by the Senior Consultant Doctor, FMC, one Dr. (Mrs.) Okudiafor to find out the culpability of the hospital in the death of the 27-year old undergraduate.