Aishat Adesina, a final year student of Foreign Languages at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), died on Thursday after complaining of shortness of breath at the school’s health centre.

According to multiple sources, Adesina, an ulcer patient, had first visited the university’s health centre sometime last week when she had a sore throat but the case worsened within a week.

“Her roommate told me she was given ulcer and malaria drugs when they first visited,” Peter Akinrodoye, a member of the Students Representative Council (SRC), told FIJ.

“Her health conditions continued to deteriorate for days despite using the drugs. She couldn’t eat and breathe well for two days before she was returned to the centre on Thursday morning.”

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However, some students told FIJ that Adesina’s case was not treated as an emergency when rushed in the second time before she was later referred to the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Ife town.

“While she was gasping for breath, the health officials were not zealous about her conditions,” an eyewitness said. “You needed to see their attitude while they were checking their records to confirm her studentship before examining her.

“When they saw that the condition had worsened, they transferred her to Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital and conveyed her in the school ambulance.”

FIJ gathered that Adesina was pronounced dead at the Seventh Day Adventist but she had stopped breathing shortly before she was taken in.

STUDENTS ACCUSE HEALTH CENTRE OF COMPLICITY

Less than 24 hours after the news of her death broke, the students began a protest over alleged negligence by the university’s health centre. 

A student-journalist who pleaded anonymity criticized Adesina’s transfer to a hospital outside the campus

“They should not have transferred her to a hospital far away while she was dying, if not that they wanted to dissociate the school from whatever complicity,” he said. “OAU Teaching Hospital would have the capacity to admit her but the health officials decided to drive as far as Lagere for treatment.”

The students are currently demanding an extensive investigation into the unsatisfactory operations of the healthcare within the school that has led to avoidable deaths of students.

OAU VC GOOFED ABOUT HEALTH CENTRE’S PERFORMANCE

In an interview with TVC in June, Eyitope Ogunbodede, the Vice-Chancellor, who is also a professor of Dentistry, said the university’s health centre had never recorded fatality.

“We have never lost any student in the health centre,” he had said. “If we are not doing well, you will find out that people would have been dying but that is not the case. But, you can not expect the level of healthcare in a teaching hospital from the health centre.”

FIJ, however, found his claim to be false.

On May 17, 2019, Omotola Akorede Kayode, a Part III student of Microbiology, died due to neglect at the health centre after he slumped on the football pitch.

In response to Adesina’s death, Abiodun Olanrewaju, the university’s Public Relations Officer, appealed to the protesting students to allow peace to reign.

“It is unfortunate we lost the student and nobody is happy about it. We will not want anything untoward to happen to our students because we are loco-parents for them as long as they are within the school,” he said.

He insisted that “no health official would delay in attending to any student because it’s not in the centre’s character”.

“We appeal to the students; the university management is looking into the issue and everything would be rectified.”

At the moment, the students are still barricading the Ife-Ibadan Expressway as well as the inward road to the campus from the Ede community in Osun State.