After the telephone conversation with Dr. Orji and her brother-in-law, Mrs. Ezi-Ashi called Dr. (Mrs.) Orji who is actually Somi’s Doctor and expressed her concerns about the Plaster cast. Dr. (Mrs.) Orji asked Somi to do some toe movements which he was unable to do and agreed with Mrs. Ezi-Ashi that Plaster cast was actually very tight, but allegedly threw her hands in the air casually and said she was not the Surgeon. She further informed Mrs. Ezi-Ashi that it was a Surgeon’s call which she could do nothing about.

Excel Hospital thereafter discharged Somi that Thursday night. However, he was unable to sleep that night as a result of the extreme discomfort he was going through occasioned by the tight Plaster cast. His uncle, the medical practitioner in the US whom Mrs. Ezi-Ashi had called earlier in the day got back to her for a second time and insisted that his colleagues who are orthopaedic surgeons doctor at the hospital where he works in the US said there was no need for Plaster cast and that it should be removed immediately.

On the morning of Friday July 27, Somi was taken back to see Dr. Orji who stubbornly refused to remove the cast but cut a square off the Plaster cast at the back of Somi’ thigh to release some pressure according to him. On getting home, at about 5p.m. Somi brought his mum’s attention to liquid oozing out from where Dr. Orji had cut off the Plaster cast. Mrs. Ezi-Ashi called Dr. Orji immediately and told him about the fluid; he requested that Somi be brought back to the hospital.

It was while Mrs. Ezi-Ashi was waiting with Somi for the evening appointment with Dr. Orji that her husband, Mr. Isioma Ezi-Ashi, who she was expecting back from Abuja arrived. Upon getting to the hospital, Isioma asked Dr. Orji to remove the cast because it was too tight. It was a very reluctant Dr. Orji that agreed to remove the cast. Dr. Orji after “removing” the cast suggested that Somi spends the night at his hospital, in order to keep his leg elevated. Somi and his mum slept at the hospital that Friday night and left on Saturday morning.

On Sunday morning, the family noticed there was liquid accumulating on Somi’s left hip above the bandage wrapped around part of Somi’s leg up to the upper thigh after the purported removal of the Plaster cast. At this stage, the family decided to get a second opinion and got in touch with Dr. Kamoru Omotosho, an Orthopaedic Surgeon as the liquid above the bandage on Somi’s hip was getting bigger.

Upon getting to Dr. Omotosho’s Kamorass Specialist Clinic, at Plot 238 Muri Okunola Street, Victorial Island, Lagos, he removed the bandage that was then heavily soaked with liquid. It was a shocked Mr. and Mrs. Ezi-Ashi that discovered that Dr. Orji did not remove the entire Plaster cast. The back of Somi’s leg was still covered with Plaster cast. The implication was that Somi’s foot was wrapped for almost four days in a very tight Plaster cast.

When the bandage was eventually removed by Dr. Omotosho, Somi’s leg was covered with big blisters and cuts from the surgical blade used by Dr. Orji in a futile and unprofessional attempt to remove the Plaster cast.  Dr. Omotosho carried out his own assessment on the leg and told Mr. and Mrs. Ezi-Ashi that Somi had lost feelings in his leg and could not move his ankle and toes.

Dr. Omotosho referred the family to one MeCure Diagnostic Centre, Lekki Phase I, to carry out some tests on Monday morning. The diagnostic centre was unable to carry out the tests because their X-ray machine was out of order and the Doppler test, which was also recommended could not be carried out as that can only be done on appointment at the Centre.

On the morning of Monday August 30, Isioma reached out to his childhood friend who is an Orthopaedic Surgeon based in the UK, Dr. Ike Nwachukwu, who happened to be in Nigeria at the time. Dr. Nwachukwu referred the family to one Dr. Jide Lawson, at the Reddington Hospital, located at 12 Idowu Martins, Victoria Island. Dr. Lawson examined Somi’s leg and admitted him at the said Reddington Hospital at 4p.m. on Monday July 30, 2018.

Between Thursday, 2nd August and Friday, 10th August, 2018, Somi had six surgeries on his left leg as preliminary stages of compartmentalisation had already set in. On Saturday, August 11, 2018, Somi was discharged by Reddington to enable his parents take him to America for further treatment.

On August 8, 2018, at the instance of Mr. and Mrs. Ezi-Ashi a petition was written to the Office of the Inspector General of Police against Dr. Orji. The matter was sent to the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos to investigate.

The SFU upon conclusion of their investigation hurriedly took the matter to Igbosere Magistrate Court and Dr. Orji was arraigned there on a single charge the petitioners felt does not reflect the seriousness of the offence of Dr. Orji.

As a result of dissatisfaction with the efforts of the Police in prosecuting the matter, the family approached the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on November 26, 2018 to take over the matter. The DPP preferred information against Dr. Orji and Dr. (Mrs) Ifeyinwa Orji at the Lagos State High Court.

Plenary trial in the case commenced in early 2020. In the course of the trial, the Lagos State Department of Public Prosecution brought a Motion for discontinuance of the case against Dr (Mrs) Ifeyinwa Orji. The application was granted and the State continued with the prosecution of Dr. Ejike Orji alone. The state called 10 witnesses in proving its case, while the defendant called two witnesses including himself. His other witness was an expert witness, a Professor of Orthopedics, who was a one-time Minister of Health in Nigeria.

Among the witnesses of the State, four of them including its expert witness, a Professor at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) are Consultant Orthopedic Surgeons. The defendant’s expert witness is also a Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon. All the five doctors agreed in the course of the trial that a very tight plaster cast if not removed within 4-8 hours can result in Compartment Syndrome (CS). They also agreed that the CS can become irreversible if the tight plaster cast is in place for 24 hours.  Somi was under the care of Dr. Orji who refused to remove the cast despite repeated requests from his parents to do so for about 72 hours.

Furthermore, all five Consultant Orthopedic Surgeons who testified in the case gave evidence that consequences of tight plaster cast on any part of the body is taught in 4th year in practically every Medical College. Students are taught at that early level of medical training that once a patient complains of a tightness of a plaster cast, the only remedy is to remove the entire cast immediately to save the patient’s limb and life in some cases.

Evidence adduced by witnesses in Court revealed that Somi had 13 major surgeries including a nerve transplant. Six of those surgeries were carried out in Reddington Hospital, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria while the remaining seven, including plastic surgery and nerve transplant were done at John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Presently, Somi has 135 stitches on his left leg. The said left leg is about a half of the right leg and is suffering from a permanent foot drop. He can never run again in his life and will never be able to participate in any physical contact sports again for the rest of his life. He continues to undergo physiological and psychological therapies practically every fortnight in America where he now resides.

The trial was concluded in early November 2022 when both the State and the defence was instructed to file their Briefs of Argument, which Briefs were duly adopted on December 9, 2022 in court. Following the adoption of the briefs, the Court adjourned the matter to January 20, 2023 for judgment.

On judgment day, the court convicted the defendant on four counts out of the six counts of offences he was charged with and sentenced him to one year imprisonment on each of the four counts. The sentences, however, are to run concurrently.

Concluded