The Edo State Specialist Hospital, Benin City, has dismissed a claim by an aggrieved husband, Mr. Sunday Oghogho, that a student doctor ‘butchered’ his late wife at the facility, saying all surgeries in the hospital are conducted by competent specialist doctors.
It said, in a statement, that the rebuttal followed Oghogho’s allegation that the hospital was liable for the woman’s death.
Oghogho had claimed, among others, that he received a phone call from the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. on April 18 that his attention was needed at the hospital in respect of his wife’s death.
He alleged in a Facebook post that when he got to the hospital with some of his family members, they met the CMD and eight other doctors of the hospital who apologised to him and his family and admitted that they had discovered that it was a student doctor who operated on his wife.
But denying this claim, the hospital’s statement reads:“The attention of the management of Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin City has been drawn to a publication on Facebook Titled: ‘How A Student Doctor ‘Butchered’ My Wife to Death at the Edo Specialist Hospital.
“We empathize and condole with the family of Mr. Sunday Oghogho over the painful loss of his wife following complications of childbirth.
“As providers in the healthcare space we have sworn to preserve life and it is therefore painful for us whenever we lose a patient irrespective of the circumstances.
“We are bound to the oath of confidentiality and medical ethics regarding the records of patients we manage even after death but the level of falsehood contained in the above-mentioned write-up has made it imperative for us to provide clarifications limiting ourselves to the issues already placed in the public domain by the husband.”
It said full details of her care are contained in her medical records which remain confidential except otherwise required by competent authorities.
It added: “The hospital management had earlier received a report of an aggrieved patient relation, Mr. Sunday Oghogho, who needed further clarification on the management of the wife and subsequently invited him for a meeting with some members of the multidisciplinary team that provided care for the patient in attendance.
“After this meeting, Mr. Sunday Oghogho expressed his dissatisfaction with all the clarifications provided. He made some ludicrous demands in an attempt to get the hospital to accept responsibility for the death of the patient, which the management turned down as there was no basis to accept such responsibility.”
The hospital said this appeared to have given rise to Oghogho’s social media post.
It added: “Furthermore, we wish to posit that all surgeries in Edo Specialist Hospital are conducted by competent specialist doctors. Specifically, the surgery was conducted by a consultant obstetrician and subsequently, the patient was co-managed by a multidisciplinary team of Obstetricians, Hematologist, Anesthesiologist and Nephrologist in the Intensive Care Unit.”
The hospital refuted the allegation of butchery.
It said: “Thus the allegation that a student doctor butchered the wife is completely false. The attempt of Mr. Sunday Oghogo to also malign through his exaggerated report laced with falsehood, the CMD is also preposterous.
“The management understands that it is painful when one loses a loved one. We sincerely sympathize and empathize with Mr. Sunday Oghogho and his family on the death of his wife.
“We also use this medium to assure the public that Edo Specialist Hospital remains committed to delivering excellent health care to all its patients at all times.’’
