‘She did not die because of hospital’s negligence,’ management says

THE management of George’s Memorial Medical Centre has reacted to the publication in The Guardian of Monday, February 16, 2015, entitled:  “My wife died because of negligence,” a case of Mrs. Onajite Otiotio Onome, popularly called Jite.

  The letter reads: “Our attention has been drawn to an article published in your newspaper on Monday February 16, 2015 entitled ‘My wife died because of negligence.’

 “For reasons of confidentiality, we obviously cannot go into details of the incident. 

    “However, the several false and misleading statements contained in your report, compel us to respond to correct the essential inaccuracies and falsehoods in the report. 

  “George’s Memorial Medical Centre is a Mother and Child Facility that operates an after hours on-call system, where at least, one of our four Consultant Obstetricians is available to attend to emergencies seven days a week.

  “A resident Medical Officer is on duty with a team of well-trained and experienced nurses, every night, as is the practice in most established hospitals in Lagos. 

“The patient in question was thus on arrival on the night of this unfortunate incident, seen by one of our medical officers. Whilst taking the history, she recognized the gravity of the presenting symptoms and placed an urgent call to the obstetrician on- call as she called for assistance to move the patient to a Labour Ward.

  “ The obstetrician arrived within 15 minutes of being called and attended to the patient in the Labour Ward. It was very clear that she had suffered an unusual catastrophic obstetric complication and deteriorated rapidly despite expert specialist medical care, until she tragically passed on.

 “The medical director met with the husband and family members and explained the probable cause of death to them. 

  “ It was in fact he (the Medical Director)  that encouraged them to request a post-mortem examination to enable all establish the exact diagnosis as well as the specific cause of death.

  “This was done and sadly, the post-mortem confirmed our initial diagnosis, which tragically held very low prospects of recovery.

  The management and staff were thoroughly traumatised by the incident, as this was the first time we would lose an obstetric patient. 

  “The management reached out to the patient’s father to express sympathy and explain the circumstances of his daughter’s death. It was most unfortunate that she developed the type of complication that she did.

 “George’s Memorial Medical Centre practices medicine to the highest clinical and ethical standards. 

 “This was the first maternal mortality we had experienced in the eight years of our existence and hundreds of babies have been delivered safely under our care. 

   “We, therefore, refute any charge of negligence over this sad and tragic incident. ”