Staff of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi Araba that attended to a 55-year-old Holland-based Nigerian who died in the hospital on Friday night are being traced and assisted by the hospital’s Department of Community Medicine, the management said.
The state Ministry of Health which announced the death, said though he concealed his travel history when admitted, investigations later revealed that he recently returned to Nigeria and had tested positive to coronavirus after noticeable respiratory complications.
Announcing the first COVID-19 death in Lagos on his twitter handle, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said the man, whose identity was not revealed, was on strong immune suppression drugs and did not provide full account of his travel history.
He said the man had a kidney transplant seven years ago and was also diabetic.
The kidney transplant, he explained, was the reason behind his strong immune suppression drugs.
He said the man returned to Nigeria two weeks ago, and was admitted on the night of April 2 on presumption of complications from the kidney transplant. “He however demonstrated signs of upper respiratory chest infection.
However, he did not provide full account of his travel history or medical circumstances to the attending doctors in keeping with global trend to enable guided treatment for COVID-19 related vulnerability due to severe underlying ill health.
“Due to his respiratory infection, he was later tested for COVID-19 and his result came out positive but died early hours of April 3, 2020 from cardiac arrest,” he stated. A few hours after the announcement, the management of LUTH released a statement concerning how he died.
The statement which was signed by the LUTH’s chairman, medical advisory committee, Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, said he was taken to LUTH by his friend while unconscious on April 2 and was rushed to the emergency unit of the hospital. “Although they denied any history of recent travel, his presentation strongly suggested COVID-19.
He was handled professionally by the Infectious Diseases Consultant and his team without unduly exposing LUTH Staff to danger. He died a few hours later.”
The statement further read, “Further investigations later revealed he earlier had a test at Yaba soon after he returned to Nigeria and the test was positive. He was a known diabetic, hypertensive patient, he also had a kidney transplant for chronic kidney disease and was on immuno-suppressant drugs.”
The corpse has since been handed over to the appropriate unit of the Ministry of Health for safe burial according to international best practices, according to the statement. Runaway patient returns to Osun isolation center A woman who returned from Cote d’Ivorie with Covid-19 and escaped from the isolation center in Osun State has been returned to the facility in Ejigbo.
The patient had absconded from the isolation centre in Ejigbo earlier today and caused apprehension in the community. The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, confirmed the woman’s return.
She said the state government was still tracing individuals she might have come in contact with, and noted that security within and around the isolation centre had been beefed up.
Mrs. Egbemode assured that the government would continue to enhance measures to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in the state.
