Family petitions medical council over death of 7-yr-old boy •We’ll probe alleged professional negligence —ATBUTH

FATHER of a seven-year-old Master Yusuf Abdulkareem Haruna, who died in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), has petitioned the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria over the circumstances that led to the death of the young Haruna.

Yusuf, according to the petition written by his father, developed signs of fever on Friday, August 25 and was admitted to a private clinic, before he was finally transferred to ATBUTH to be taken care of by experienced doctors and consultant paediatricians, on Monday, August 28.

“On Monday, as early as 7.00 a.m., we were at the trauma centre of the Teaching Hospital where the two doctors there could not attend to us, even though we rushed in as emergency patients.

“The doctors said they had other critical patients to attend to; hence they said we should go straight to the Paediatric Medical Ward.

“I rushed my son who continued to vomit intermittently to the PMW where I met two doctors that said they were rounding off their night call duty.

“They asked me of my son’s medical condition which I narrated to them, and my son too, who was still very conscious also answered several questions that the doctors asked him.

“Despite examining his stomach and felt that his pulse rate was very low, nothing was administered to him to keep him on the balance. At a point, my son was abandoned for a patient that was rushed in unconscious. We had to wait for nearly an hour while my son continued to lament in pains and kept on vomitting.

“At about 8.00 a.m., some fresh doctors came to take over from those on night duty. They too took over the clerking of the boy, and it also dragged on for yet another hour or more. At about 9.00 a.m., the head of the Paediatric Ward walked into the hospital to see my son and also observed that his condition was serious as he quickly noticed that his pulse was low.

“He urged the doctors to rush the clerking and administer some fluid on the boy. A canula was fixed on my boy’s hand but nothing else like drip was given to him. Instead, we were asked to go and carry out an abdominal scanning. That was at about 10.30 a.m. We rushed down to the Radiology Unit where the scanning was done and the result only came out at about 12 noon,” the petition read.

According to him, they left the hospital to carry out X-ray and some other tests but upon their return around 3.00 p.m., there was no nurse at the ward where the boy was admitted.

“Nothing was given to my son despite his condition and persistent vomit that contained blood. I called the attention of the doctors to it and they later came to us. At that time it was about 5.00 p.m.

“My son was brought to the hospital at about 7.00 a.m. but was not given any form of medication until 5.30 p.m.; this was after I had informed them that he had not been eating food and had not been passing stool or gas or urine in the past 48 hours. The boy became weak and dehydrated that it took them some time to get his veins to fix the canula,” the petition added.

According to Haruna, the doctor said he might have to refer to boy to Jos University Teaching Hospital or Federal Medical Centre, Gombe, as the ATBUTH was in gross shortage of doctors, especially surgeons.

“The time was 5.40 p.m.  And he said he would ask me to seek external help should he fail to get a green light from the surgical team that they could do the surgery on my son on that very day.

“But shortly afterwards, at about 6.00 p.m., a female doctor came in from the surgical ward to inform us that she was asked to come and take over my son and get him prepared for surgery. She took over the case and began another round of clerking. She then asked me if any blood investigation had been carried out on my son. I said none, except the blood sugar test that carried out on him some few minutes earlier.

“She then told me that I had to go and carry out the blood investigation and that they are three in number. I asked her why didn’t the hospital gave us these tests to carry out much earlier. Her reply was ‘I don’t know; as you can see I am not in the Peadiatric Medical Ward; I am from the surgical ward.’

“I collected the request forms for chemical pathology, blood transfusion and haematology that she handed to me, and instructed that I should go outside the hospital to get it done at a private laboratory. There at the lab, I was informed that normally such blood investigations usually take 24 hours but they agreed to do it for me in about three hours and the time was 7.00 p.m.,” he added.

Recalling some other agony the family went through before the boy passed on at exactly 3.00 a.m. the next day, the father said the nurses and doctors on duty at the hospital cared less, adding that the boy died due to their negligence.

He also lamented that even when the boy was gasping for breath before he finally died, the oxygen tube brought by the nurses could not be used because the wall socket was malfunctioning.

“During the process of getting him on the bed, my son who had been complaining of the natural discomfort and irritation that the NG Tube was causing him decided to pull it off his nose. My wife called the attention of the nurses that the tube had come off. But none of the nurses responded. Instead, the head nurse on duty came and yelled at my son…

“My son could not sleep all night due to the rising pains in his abdomen. He kept complaining of stomach pains that gave him discomfort. At about midnight, his canula shifted and his drip was not passing through his veins. My wife called the attention of the nurses to it. One of the nurses came, while the other one remained seated. The younger nurse called on the senior one for help, but the senior nurse said she would not be able to help because she had problem seeing at night. She never bothered even when the second nurse observed that my son’s veins were fast collapsing and the blood clotted immediately on each spot she tried to fix the canula.

“After long minutes of trial she fixed the canula the two nurses went to sleep. At 2am, my wife called on the nurses to see if they could help my son to administer his injections, it took the yelling of my wife to get the junior nurse up to attend to my son.

“At that time, the boy went into serious pains and crisis as he continued to wriggle in pains and his abdomen became pressured and bloated. At that point the boy said he wanted to defecate; which he did with the help of my wife. But he could no longer stand on his feet. His breathing became short and fast. My wife called on the nurses.

“One of the nurses who responded said they don’t have the contact of the two doctors on duty. So they could not help. My wife asked them to use the Oxygen tube to help him. When they brought the Oxygen, the wall socket was not working. The boy was still gasping intermittently when the nurse gave up. My wife carried on with the chest compression until the child died in her hands,” it added.

The petition asked the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to investigate the death and ensured justice was done.

Reacting, the management of ATBUTH said it had set up a probe panel to investigate the alleged professional misconduct.

The top management team, led by the chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Dr Abubakar S. Kadas, during a condolence visit to the bereaved family, acknowledged that there was a gross professional misconduct on the part of the medics who were supposed to save the life of the deceased.

He, however, regretted the unfortunate development, adding that “we have set up an internal panel to investigate the issue for appropriate disciplinary actions.”