Man attacks doctor with cutlass after losing 5-year-old son

A man, simply identified as Gabriel, yesterday attacked medical workers at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure, the Ondo State capital, after the death of his five-year-old child.

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

 A witness, Mrs Iyabo Ayila, who narrated the incident to our reporter, said, “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.

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“When he was told that the boy was dead, he 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.”

A staff of the hospital, who spoke to Daily Trust under the condition of anonymity, said 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.”

When contacted, the police spokesman in the state, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, said a manhunt had 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.

In a statement issued by the Chairman and Secretary of the association, Dr Makinde Olugbenga and Dr Adeniyi Adetayo, respectively, the body said, “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 gynaecology department, joining to assist her colleague by using her phone to illuminate the 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.”