Driver attacks medical workers with cutlass after losing child

A middle-aged man simply identified as Gabriel Monday, went berserk and attacked medical workers at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure, the Ondo state capital, after the death of his child at the facility.

Daily Trust gathered that the action of the man, who is also a commercial driver, paralysed activities at the hospital for several hours as both staff and patients ran for their lives.

The man, it was learnt, rushed his five-year-old child to the government-owned hospital, but gave up the ghost despite the effort to save his life.

An eyewitness, Mrs Iyabo Ayila, who narrated the incident to our reporter, revealed that the man and his wife had rushed their sick child into the accident and emergency unit of the hospital with a cry for help.

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“Immediately the man came in with the child, all the nurses on duty came to his rescue and the child was admitted and was put on life support.

”The father of the child was later told to pay the sum of N8,000 but unfortunately during that process, the child gave up the ghost.

“When he was told that the boy was dead, he hurriedly went into his car with anger and brought a short cutlass which he used to beat one of the doctors on duty who almost went into a coma after inflicting severe injuries on her body.

“It was later we were told that the deceased had been sick for almost six months and his parents had kept him at home while administering him self-medication. We don’t know why he was rushed to the hospital for treatment at the eleventh hour,” Mrs Ayila added.

A junior staffer in the hospital, who spoke with Daily Trust under the condition of anonymity, also confirmed the incident.

She explained that the stomach and the scrotum of the driver’s son were swollen at the point of admission.

“The waste product that was extracted from the deceased showed that he had been given some concoctions merely sighting its colour.”

According to her, the authorities of the hospital immediately called on the police division in Oke Aro for their rescue as the father of the child looked more furious.

“Even with the presence of the police the angry man still threatened to kill anybody that came his way,” the medical worker further added.

When contacted for a reaction, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, said a manhunt has been launched for the suspect.

Meanwhile, the Ondo State chapter of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, has condemned the attack on their members in the hospital by the commercial driver.

In a statement issued by the chairman and secretary of the association, Dr Makinde Olugbenga, and Dr Adeniyi Adetayo respectively, the group said the doctors on call made efforts to save the life of the patient.

The association also denied a report that the workers on duty did not pay attention to the sick boy.

The statement reads: “While the paediatrics call doctor was in the Emergency ward attending to a patient, a five-year-old male child chronically ill-looking was brought in by his parents. At the time of arrival at the hospital, the child’s condition had deteriorated and immediately the call doctors rushed to see the child leaving what she was doing since the condition looked more severe.

“The child was also noticed to be gasping. Upon arrival, the doctors immediately attended to the child and began resuscitative measures on him. Despite the assistance of another senior doctor who until then was busy in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department, joining to assist her colleague by using her phone to illuminate the cannular site, the patient finally died.

“In the process, the senior doctor who came to lend a helping hand was assaulted with a cutlass and sustained grievous bodily injury and she is currently undergoing treatment.

“We wish to inform the Hospital Management and the general public that this assault on our Doctors and Nurses was premeditated, contrary to the misinformation being circulated in the public domain that the doctors on duty were pressing the phone rather than attending to a chronically ill child.”