Humanitarian doctor Benjamin Olowojebutu was five minutes away from his residence on Nov 4, 2016 when a drunken driver hit his vehicle. The fatal head-on collision left him gasping for breath.
With the support of onlookers and his wife, he was taken to the emergency section of a teaching hospital. But he was treated like a commoner. Yet, Olowojebutu was not disposed to revealing his medical identity.
After necessary efforts by the wife to get him treated properly, she was informed there was no vacant bed. The victim was left outside on the floor for two hours without analgesics and no vital signs of any coming.
A referral letter was being written without even seeing his face. This forced the wife to engage on aggressive networking. She sent an SOS to a WHATSAPP group on his precarious condition.
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In no time, the CMD was informed and a bed was arranged on the floor to immediately treat him. He was saved because he was a doctor. If he could hover being life and death on the account of negligence and insufficient facilities despite being a doctor, what fate do commoners face?
That was the question on the mind of Olowojebutu. It got him thinking on the needs to give back to the community.
He remembered his father’s words: “You must give back to the community as you didn’t die for a reason because there is a purpose. A good man will have good money but not all rich men are good men.
“To be a good man you must give back to the community consciously.”
That triggered his medical interventions, which has seen him conduct over countless free surgeries. Dr Ben, as fondly called by family, friends and patients, recently conducted 51 life- transforming surgeries, five Fibroids, 33 Lipomas and 13 breast lumps.
Through the Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation (BOF), the Medical Director of Twinex Hospital Ikorodu, Lagos, has been bringing succor to indigent people suffering various diseases.
To mark a year of free surgeries, he will hold a Praise Night on Saturday, October 26 followed by a dinner the following day at Banquet Hall of Excellence Hotel Ogba.
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