Mrs. Nike Babajide walked into the General Hospital Apata, Ibadan, Oyo State, for a scan and treatment. It was a decision that could have been taken by anyone in her condition but that was the beginning of a journey that would lead to her death.

Nike’s stomach grew, her husband told FIJ, and as it did every day — disturbingly so — there was a finality hovering around her. In her final days, she could no longer complete her sentences. Her skin paled. Her blood pressure decreased. Her breath became laborious.

In the words of her husband, who has filed a negligence complaint to Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, watching his wife die was the most painful moment of his life.

When the test showed that her organs were failing and her stomach still filling up with fluid, her breath heavier by the hour, he began to break down.

She did everything to save herself, Babajide told FIJ, her savings all going into her health. She wanted to live; for her three-year-old daughter, for her husband whom she loved unreservedly for six years and for her customers who loved her service.

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She was a supplier of water dispensers, and she was one of the best in the business, said Sydney, Babajide’s friend.

In her final days, she held on to life, her husband said, and even when the situation was too critical for her to have given in, she held on. Medical reports showed that there were 2.5 litters of bile in her stomach; half of that was unbearable.

The manner of Nike’s death was similar to previous medical negligence cases in Nigeria: swollen stomach after surgery, failing organs, low blood pressure.

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE ON THE RISE

Nigeria has a high incidence of death from medical negligence due to lack of proper and extensive law on it, Hauwa Saleh, a lawyer, told FIJ.

However, according to Ogundare Bisola, a lawyer in Lagos, the number of victims who file lawsuits as a result of medical negligence is low.

“An empirical work by a researcher shows that 61.69% of Nigerian patients feel that medical practitioners in Nigeria are arrogant and careless about their conditions and plights,” she said.

“Also, 33.3% of Nigerian patients indicated that their doctor’s treatment had caused them extra injury beyond the ones that took them to the hospital.

“The reasons for the low level of claims include a cultural notion of adverse medical events, poverty, illiteracy, limited option of treatment, reluctance to seek redress against the medical practitioner and, most of all, ignorance.”

Numerous cases of medical negligence documented by the media date back to February 1989, when a certain ‘Nwuzor’, a junior chemist under Mr. Hope Nnoli “compounded choloriquine syrup”, leading to the death of many children. The autopsy on the bodies of the children revealed their death was caused by the choloriquine syrup, with Hope and Nwuzor later found guilty as charged at the supreme court.

IT STARTED AS A GOOD NEWS

“In January, she told me she saw blood, but before then, around December last year, she missed her period. We considered it good news because it meant our second child was on the way,” Babajide told FIJ about the onset of his wife’s health struggles at General hospital, Apata.

“Immediately, we went to General Hospital Apata for a scan; the scan later revealed it was a miscarriage. The test further showed that while the pregnancy had been terminated, the foetus was still in the womb, making the miscarriage incomplete.

“Doctor Tijani A.M who attended to my wife after the scan gave prescription drugs, saying they would help flush out the remaining debris. She bought all the drugs prescribed by Tijanni A. M and she used them for the duration required by the doctor.”

When the couple returned to the hospital after the completion of the prescribed dosage, the doctor examined Nike and said she was okay.

“I asked the Doctor Tijani if we should do another scan to confirm and he gave me a professional advice that there was no need,” Babajide said. “Everything was fine for some weeks until she began to complain of abdominal pains.”

‘IT’S LIKE WE NEED TO SEDATE O’
In response to the pains, the couple returned to Dr. Tijani; he told Nike to undergo another pelvic scan. The scan later revealed that there was still some debris inside.

“We took the scan to Doctor Tijani and he said he would have to conduct an evacuation. By this, the doctor meant he would go in physically and remove those things since the drugs he prescribed could not do the job,” said Babajide.

“We went back on Monday for the evacuation and I asked the doctor to tell me what to expect from the evacuation. Was it going to be painful? I asked and I didn’t receive any definite answer. He told us to go and see a Nurse, one Mrs. Apata, to pay for the things that would be used for the evacuation and thereafter he asked us to go to the theatre.”

According to Babajide, it was when his wife was lying down on the surgical table that the doctor came in to ask if he could sedate.

“And I thought, how can a doctor ask me if he should sedate or not? How am I supposed to know that. I am not the doctor.

“The nurse in the theatre, Mrs. Apata, said, ‘Doctor, there is no need; she will bear it’. I was confused. And when the evacuation was about to start, the doctor said I could not be there.”

Babajide began to hear his wife scream.

“You know, there are levels to screaming; there are levels to pain and I have never in my life heard her scream that way. I went in and I asked what was happening, and it was then the doctor told me ‘It’s like we need to sedate 0’.

“Then he told the nurse to bring sedation drugs. She gave her the sedative and she didn’t allow the sedative to take effect before he continued the evacuation. The screaming still didn’t stop until he was done. After the evacuation, she could no longer walk with her legs.”

DOCTOR REFERS PATIENT TO HIS PERSONAL HOSPITAL
The abdominal pain would persist, so the couple again went back to General Hospital Apata, only to be reassigned to the same Dr. Tijani A.M.

“We did another scan again and it revealed there was a fluid gathering up in her cul-de-sac,” Babajide said.

“We came to the doctor and he told me that the only way for this to be better managed was to go to his personal hospital. At that point, it appeared to me that he was looking for a way to milk our vulnerable situation.

“It became clear to me that this was a man filled with greed who would go to any length and at the sacrifice of a life just to make money.”

The doctor took Nike to Bethel Specialist Hospital at Mokola, Ibadan. Babajide told FIJ the response from the hospital was immediate and swift. The attendant fixed an oxygen on her and invited a professional gynecologist to see her.

The gynecologist at Bethel Specialist Hospital recommended an immediate transfer to University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. It all happened within a week from the day of evacuation surgery. At UCH, she was taken to ICU for preliminary preparation for the surgery because her vitals were down. The next day, she passed on.

COMPLAINT TO MDCN
Michael Solanke, the lawyer representing the family, told FIJ that complaints had been lodged before the investigative panel of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria as the preliminary protocol requires.

“There is sufficient evidence to prove that it was a medical negligence and that justice for Mrs. Nike Babajide is justice for all women who have suffered in the hands of a negligent Doctor,” Solanke said.

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‘NOT MY FAULT; THEY DIDN’T HAVE MONEY’

FIJ visited General Hospital Apata to get Dr. Tijani’s comments, but two nurses on duty said he was not in the hospital. When he was eventually reached on the phone, he said he did a “simple” evacuation for Mrs. Nike Babajide.

“Yes, the husband called me the following morning after the evacuation to say that she was having abdominal pains,” he said.

“I asked her to come and see me but she did not come until four days. When she finally came after four days, her condition was very bad.

“A lot of things could have been properly managed if there was money. The major issue was money. She could have gotten the best care if the husband has money.”

He also said the abdominal scan done after the evacuation revealed residues of blood inside her stomach, and that her uterus was empty.

“What the abdominal scan revealed showed that she was supposed to be admitted immediately but since the husband was always complaining about money, I just prescribed drugs for them and they left,” he said, insisting he couldn’t take responsibility for the death.

When FIJ asked Dr. Tijani how there were blood residues and abdominal pain if the evacuation was properly done, he responded: “I am not supposed to be speaking to a journalist regarding this matter. All this happened in a public, not private, hospital. The hospital, under the chief head, should be the one to speak to you. I am just acting on his behalf.”

A BATTLE TO SAVE OTHER LIVES

FIJ also called the hospital’s official line, but it was switched off. A text message sent to the line had not been responded to as of press time.

Meanwhile, Babajide is insisting Dr. Tijani must account for the death of his wife.

“I’m doing this to save other lives… to make sure no woman ever has to go through such pains and such inhumane treatment again,” he said.

This report was produced with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation