Akpabio: How my grandchild bled to death at govt hospital

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has narrated how his grandchild died of “medical neglect” at an undisclosed government hospital.

Speaking during the screening of Dr Tunji Alausa, one of the ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu, Akpabio narrated how his grandchild died due to hemorrhage allegedly caused by negligence.

“Just like every other person here, I have also been a victim of medical neglect. In 2019, my first grandchild died through bleeding at a Federal Medical Centre. He was receiving drip and it tussled in the night and there was no help.

“No doctor, no nurse. He bled until he lost 60 percent of his blood and almost going mental, he struggled and fell on the floor. He was looking for water to drink. He rolled on the floor outside and entered the early morning dew,” the Senate President said.

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He said his grandchild was later found in the dew the next morning.

Continuing, he said: “By that time, he had gone into a coma. I was on my way to Port Harcourt for the 2019 rally when they called me. When I got to the medical centre, I struggled with my physician to revive the boy but to no avail. I struggled. They went and brought a defibrillator to attempt to revive the heart, but it did not work.

“When I inquired when the defibrillator was last used, I was told the machine stopped working years ago. I used my hand and struggled with my personal physician, I could not revive him. I had to close his eyes and put him in the mortuary.

“Almost every family has suffered from what is going on in our hospitals. The doctor on duty that night had an emergency in his private clinic and he had to abandon the hospital to rush to go and attend to private patients in his private clinic.”

Earlier, the Senate President asked the nominee how he planned to tackle alleged diversion of government equipment to private hospitals.