Published 2nd Aug, 2023

Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor, died at the General Hospital in Odan, Lagos Island, on Tuesday.

Witnesses said that Diaso sustained life-threatening injuries after the elevator she was in fell from the 10th floor to the ground.

After over an hour was spent on retrieving her, rescuers found out that there was no blood available for urgent transfusion in the hospital.

One of Diaso’s colleagues, who can’t be named at the moment, was waiting to use the elevator when it crashed on the ground floor.

“To think I pressed the open button waiting for it to come down to pick me and I heard the crash. The person she (Diaso) was coming down to meet was a dispatch rider who was standing behind me,” they said.

“Hearing the crash, he ran out of the building while I froze because I didn’t understand what just happened, glass shattering, bricks falling…Told Mr Charles that if anyone was inside… Hmm… that impact was too much, not knowing she was there in fact.

“I heard Quadri come down and Hilda shouted that Vwaere was inside, then we started the process of opening the elevator. Low muffled sounds that someone was truly inside became apparent. Can’t describe the sight I saw, but nobody deserves that, especially when it could be avoided.

“Broken pieces of the mirror everywhere, with blood, all I could do was to hope we’d get her out. Corruption kills. This is the real life consequence of having people who award contracts based on nepotism and skim off budgets, because that elevator had been bad since I first used it in 2018. They refused to solve it permanently.

“Now, I’m hearing the bastards are telling people to lie! Better don’t let them bully you. That could have been you in that elevator.”

News of Diaso’s demise has been followed by complaints of negligence from many doctors. Fellow doctors from the same hospital continue to state their disappointment.

“I am so livid, because we complained about that elevator. My flatmate and I got stuck there. It could have been anyone of us,” Joy Aifuo, a doctor, tweeted on Wednesday.

“Particularly aggrieved because we’ve complained for a long time about this elevator. We maneuvered, managed and prayed each time we had to use it. Empty promises would be made to fix it… till it killed one of us,” Olanrewaju Aiyepola, another doctor, tweeted hours after the crash.

“Everyone responsible either directly or indirectly must be held accountable.”

FIJ understands that Diaso’s colleagues are expressing their grief with a solemn rally at work on Wednesday.

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