Saturday November 21, 2014 started like every other day for the Chaz B Chukuma family-bright, beautiful and full of hopes. But by evening, it had turned bleak, and by dawn the following morning, it was complete darkness. Arrowhead of the family and popular radio presenter, Charles Bruce Chukuyenum Ayibatonye Chukuma, popularly known as Chaz B on account of his highly inspirational radio show, ‘Sharing Life issues with Chaz B,’ on Inspiration FM shut his eyes never to open them again. One year after, his beloved wife, and pillar of support, Roseline is up asking questions on the circumstances surrounding his death – especially the part played by the family hospital. She spoke with Gboyega Alaka.
You recently came out with an allegation bordering on negligence and dereliction of duties against St. Nicholas Hospital regarding the death of your husband, Chaz B Chukuma. Tell us about it.
It was Friday night, November 21 2015. The day started like every other day. No complaints. I went to my daughter’s school; I was her Class Mummy and we had to do decorations in preparation for the Christmas season; while my husband, Chaz B went to work. At about five in the evening, the show started and I was as usual listening to it in the living room. Then in the middle of the shop, he called to say that he wasn’t feeling too good and that I should come and pick him. Meanwhile his friend, Abiona was in the studio with him and actually offered to take him to the hospital or the house, but he told him “No, my wife is coming to pick me.” And that is expected because we’ve done everything together from day one, 11 years ago. He was my best friend. I don’t have any other best friend order than him. So I went down with the driver, and found that he wasn’t looking too good. I asked, ‘What is the problem?’ and he said his stomach. Meanwhile, he had had incisional hernia the August before. Let me state here that he never had kidney problems like was widely reported and the surgery he had was not about kidney failure or replacement. My husband died with his kidneys intact. The incisional hernia was done at St Nicholas; a doctor there and another who came from India carried out the procedure. And he was fine after that.
So we arrived the studio and he told me to take him home, but when I saw that he was in pains and very uncomfortable, I said ‘No, let’s go to the hospital.’ We got to St Nicholas and saw Judith, at the reception. Soon after, we met a doctor, Dr Kewe; he asked for my husband’s file, and they said it was in Dr Bamgboye’s office and he wasn’t in town. So Dr Kewe opened an emergency file right there and started asking questions because he practically knew nothing about his medical history. I was the one answering him because my husband was in pains. At a time, he left us, went out and was like ‘I’m trying to reach Dr Balogun, but his lines are not going.’ I called him on my husband’s line and it went through, so I handed him the phone. Eventually, I think Dr Balogun told him to be careful with my husband because he was a post-transplant patient. He also suggested this injection – I don’t know the name; and he was given two shots.
Meanwhile Balogun said to observe him till the next day, so they sent the nurse to go and prepare for his admission. But before then, I think I heard her say something like ‘I think there’s no room, but let me go and check.’ So my husband told me to go get him his stuff. He took his high blood pressure medication at 10pm; he told me to get him that as well. Then along the way, as we approached Bonny Camp, I got a call from Dr. Kewe asking me to come back. He said ‘Your husband is feeling much better,’ and that I should come and take him home and bring him back in the morning.
Wasn’t that rather sudden?
Well, I turned round anyway and went back to the hospital. Meanwhile, they checked his temperature and found that it was high, probably because of the pain and all that; so Kewe sent me to the pharmacist to get Exforge. The pharmacist looked at the prescription and was like ‘Who wrote this? I told her the doctor in Consulting Room 2. She moved to a corner and called him on the intercom. Whatever they were discussing, I do not know, but eventually, he gave me one, which was given to him. But when my husband got up as we made to go, he staggered. And then I asked, ‘Are you sure he’s okay or is it because you guys don’t have a room, because I heard the official expressing doubts about the availability of a room? And before God and man, Dr Kewe looked me in the eyes and said, ‘We don’t have a room, bring him back in the morning.’ He said the injections given to him would sustain him till the morning, and I said okay. Meanwhile right from the moment we got to the hospital, all my husband kept saying was that something was disturbing him around the chest and that if only he could throw up. He obviously needed some kind of medical aid because it wasn’t coming out. But when we got home, I got him a bowl and he was able to vomit something, and looked a bit relieved, so I fell into a slumber and dozed off. Suddenly he woke up at about 6am; he was in this terrible pain. I jumped into my clothes, called Dr Balogun and told him my husband was in a very bad state and that I was driving him down. I also told him that I would like an experienced doctor to be on ground when I got there, to which he said ‘no problem.’
He said a senior surgeon by name Dr Fadiran would be waiting for me. I lived in Lekki Phase One and it was on a Saturday; so I got to the hospital at Onikan in less than 20 minutes. My husband came down from the vehicle and walked into the hospital all by himself – which I found a bit disappointing, considering that I’d called ahead that it was an emergency. Of course they later brought in the wheelchair and wheeled him into the Emergency Room, but for a hospital like St. Nicholas, that was a minus. And then I still I saw the same doctor from last night. I asked after the Dr Fadiran and he said he was on his way. I asked where he was coming from, and he said Ikoyi. I made a mental note that he should be with us in about 15minutes. Inside the ER, Dr Kewe was struggling to locate my husband’s vein to pass in the drip. I asked, ‘Where is your Anaestasiologist?’ He said he or she was on his way. ‘Where is your radiologist?’ He said that too was on his way. And the doctor too! Virtually everybody that could help my husband was not on ground. At the end of the day, he couldn’t locate his vein on the right hand or so, and he had to switch to the other hand, which was the fistula hand that was used for dialysis before the hernia procedure. Ordinarily, that hand should not be tampered with. He turned to the fistula hand and at a point thought he had got the vein, but of course the drip wasn’t going at the end of the day. By this time Dr Kewe had become confused.
Meanwhile, my husband kept saying ‘I just want to throw up.’ And Dr Kewe was busy taking instructions on the phone to treat my husband! He may deny it now, but I was right there and saw it all. And then he put him on oxygen. And I found that appalling because it was choking him the more. This person wants to throw up! Even as a non-medical person, I would think that the appropriate thing would have been to help him get whatever it was that was troubling him out. And then he said he wanted to give him an injection. I asked what the injection was for and he said it would stop him from vomiting! He was also given four adrenaline injections. I don’t know what those were for. To make matters worse, 7.30, 8, 8.30, no doctor arrived. 9’o’clock, no doctor! And then my husband became more uncomfortable. Meanwhile before then, a doctor – not Fadiran came with a suction tube. He inserted the tube. You could tell that he was more experienced, but he obviously came in late. This was what they should have done immediately I came in or even the night before. Meanwhile my husband continued to struggle and struggle. And at a time some liquid came out of his mouth and nose; and after all of that came out, I knew he had passed because I was holding and massaging his legs. They brought in the shock machine, but alas all that was formality. What should have been done wasn’t done at the appropriate time. My husband passed at exactly 9.30 am. He died because the doctor on ground didn’t know what to do. I still didn’t see the senior consultant doctor until I left. If he was there when he was called that there was an emergency, my husband would still have been here.
How devastating were you, watching your husband pass like that; at a time when you least expected it?
My goodness! I almost went mad. If not for the grace of God, I would not be sitting here. At a time, I wasn’t talking to nobody and people were afraid for me. Chaz B and I were so close, like stew on rice. So it’s not been easy at all. But again, looking at my daughter, Monalisa, I get encouraged. I see a lot of her dad in her. Sometimes, she talks and I think that I’m hearing my husband’s voice. It’s one year on Sunday (today), but it still feels like it’s not real. Like I would wake up someday and find that it never happened and Chaz B is still with us. Monalisa’s birthday was approaching and I asked, ‘Mama what would you like for your birthday?’ And she said, ‘I wish my daddy is here.’ And she started crying.
Why are you coming out to talk about this now? It’s been one year.
Well I was going to talk about it, but not immediately after his death. I needed time to regain my sanity and be able to talk. He died of pure negligence and I wasn’t going to sweep it under the carpet. I mean this was part of the things he was against and spoke against while he was alive! And I promise him that I would talk. He cannot just die like that. Here was a man I never in my wildest dream thought would leave me in a long time, and then in one week I was being asked to write his tribute. Everybody had submitted their tributes and they were waiting for me. And I was like ‘Whose tribute?’ I certainly didn’t expect him to die from a mere stomach ache, not after he had successfully passed through a more complex procedure like incisional hernia. And you know what? The hospital at the end of the day said he died of dehydration.
Are you considering legal actions?
His death needs to be investigated. Professionals should be made accountable for their actions. We should stop managing. If this kind of negligence should be happening in a hospital as ‘big’ as St. Nicholas, then where else is there to go? And then you want to blame people that travel out for medical attention? No. Even my little Monalisa was like, ‘Mummy, I thought hospitals are supposed to take care of sick people?’ I said yes. And she said ‘So why did they allow my daddy to die?’ She’s only seven and she’s already considering not staying in this country. She said ‘Maybe we should just go and stay in America; because she’s been there and as young as she is, she has spotted the difference. I was somewhere in Los Angeles the other day and they were chasing just one man, but you need to see the number of helicopters and personnel that were on the streets. And I was like ‘What! When are we ever going to get here?’ And Dr Kewe in his reply to my petition said that my husband told me he wanted to go home, that he couldn’t share a room with any patient. Here was a sick man, even if he said that while I was away, why didn’t you tell me, his wife? He never said that. Chaz B Chukuma would sleep in a marketplace if he knew I would be there with him. Besides, he didn’t make him sign anything. He should at least have told me ‘By the way your husband opted to leave on his own against medical advice.’
How have you coped in the last one year?
Cope? I’m still trying to get used to the fact that he’s gone.
What kind of a man was Chaz B?
Chaz B Chukuma was a wonderful man. A man with a heart of gold; very humble. If you knew him, you’ll know what I’m talking about. He was one in a million, down to earth. If you didn’t know him and saw him chatting with security men and drivers, you’d never believe it was him. He was the type that would ply a keke or bike just to get to the studio on time if there is traffic. He’s that kind of a person. Humble to a fault.
How often did you listen to his show?
I was his number one fan. Every day, I listened to his show and sometimes when he answered a particular person in a way that I thought wasn’t right, I’d tell him, ‘You have to apologise to that person.’ And the next day he’d apologise. So I was his number one fan, as well as his number one critic.
What were his plans? He sure had reached a height with his show, where he must have been thinking of the next level.
This whole office place we got because he was going to go into television. And he was working towards it seriously; had started buying equipment and all of that. We got this place in early October and he passed in November. Not even up to two months. That’s his office right opposite mine.
What do you remember most about him?
Everything. We’ve done everything together from day one. Everything around me reminds me of him, especially his sense of humour. Here was a man who’d be on his way home, yet he’d call me countless number of times. He tells me ‘I love you’ God knows how many times a day. And Monalisa does the same. So when Monalisa is telling me that, I see Chaz B. I see him in my dreams. He talks to me in my dream, even though some pastors have said ‘No, no, he’s dead, you shouldn’t have anything to do with him anymore.’ But excuse me, this was my husband!
I mean, we started from Abuja. This was before he even became the Chaz B that is a household name. We were living in an uncompleted building, a school building in one rough area. At night there were gunshots here and there. He was with Hot FM. But I met him when he wasn’t really doing anything. I was a business woman, but I didn’t have a shop. So I’d gather my goods and take to my buyers and of course they’d owe. We stayed in a room that didn’t have a door, and we used a big plank to create a door for ourselves. Even the floor of our room was just sand. We tiled it ourselves. I got broken tiles from my uncle who sells tiles in Abuja. We called the tiler who charged us three thousand, but we didn’t have three thousand. So we ended up doing it ourselves, which was how I got the mark on my face (pointing to the upper part of her brow). We weren’t tilers; so we ended up having rough and sharp edges here and there. I fell on the tile on my birthday, which was how I got the mark. And he felt so so bad. I mean, we’ve been through thick and thin together! Sometimes, to eat was a problem, and I’d walk down the road to the malams there and speak Hausa to them to get stuffs on credit.
And having to now lose him at the peak of things…
Yeah. When we were really settling down; when he should be enjoying the fruits of his labour. I cry every day. I cry at night. Even though I know it’s affecting me, I really can’t help it. Chaz B Chukuma would do anything for me.
How do you see the future without him?
What can I say? It’s only going to be by His grace, because the truth is that a future without Chaz B, I never imagined. So I don’t know what it would look like. Of course He that has kept me up till this day will continue to keep me.
And the dream, are you going to keep it going?
Well the sad thing is that we’re no longer going to be going into the television aspect of it, because it was going to be a live thing, Chaz B Live. So it was going to be his face. But all that is gone now. All thanks to St. Nicholas. As regards the radio, like you may well know, we’ve been trying, even though we’ve had some ups and downs; don’t forget when the original owner of a brand is no longer there, you can’t expect everything to go as expected. Mr Chike and Mr Stephen have been holding forth. There was a misunderstanding at a point and Stephen left, but he’s back now. The show was an independent programme wholly produced by him. We buy airtime.
Anniversary plans for Chaz B?
We have the Ajegunle Project coming up to commemorate one year of his passing. November ordinarily is our month of giving and the Ajegunle Project was something we came up with on the show to help the needy before he passed. Our motto is Strangers, Orphans and Widows. We were going to pay them a visit but he passed before we could do that. So we’re reviving the project and it’s going to happen on the November 28. A lot of people have agreed to be part of it because it’s Chaz B, including musicians and comedians. We’re not really doing much after church; we’ve shifted everything the 28th. So, we’d be cooking right there and distributing to the people. We’ve also asked people to bring out clothes they don’t need. Not necessarily rags. If you have clothes that you haven’t worn for up to six months, that probably means that they’re no longer in vogue with you. You can bring them out for us to give out to those who need them.
