SAD: As Kogi Doctor’s Death Opens Can of Worms and Bello Hypocrisy

Medical personnel and other workers of the Kogi state own specialist hospital in Lokoja are mourning. They were not in sad mood because of the death of the patients under their care, but for the loss of one of their precious colleagues, Dr Rosemary Chukwudube who succumbed to the cold hands of death via asthma attack. Late Dr Rosemary Chukwudube’s transition to eternity in the hospital where she plies her trade on Monday was as shocking as it was pathetic. For 40 years, the late Doctor who was Head of Department of the family unit in the hospital is said to have been battling the sickness that eventually killed her. So, drugs and the necessary medications remains her companion all these years . But since last year, it was no longer easy for her to get the necessary drugs meant for her ailment, as her financial strength became weaker due to challages associated with her source of income. It was gathered that for months, with mounting family commitments, and irregular salary payment , she hardly take the necessary medications to ward off her persisting asthma attack. 

She is said to have received only February salary this year, and her patient medicine store where she sells drugs and other medical equipment to augment salary income has run out of stocks, without replacement for months. The hardships in the hospital did not single her out, it was a ‘cake’ for all. At a point, it is said that the Doctors in the hospital had internal arrangements within themselves over how to operate with minimal stress because of hardships associated with non payment of salaries and other entitlements. Umpteenth times, they had declared strike action to drive home their points, but all to no avail, as their status quo remain unchanged. In fact, it was said, in the last industrial disputes with the state government, it took the intervention of the National president of Nigerian Medical Association(NMA), Professor Mike Ogirima who happens to be a kinsman of governor Yahaya Bello to prevail on the resident doctors in the hospital to resume duty. Even as at that, non of the Doctors in the hospital was paid January salary, except the newly employed ones who were owing about 6months salaries then. Those who could not bear the hardships were said to have resigned from the hospital , and left to seek for greener pasture elsewhere, within and outside the country. A source said the hospital has lost the service of 15 of its very senior doctors , and 4 others are said to be on the verge of leaving the hospital by the end of this month to this effect. Even majority of the newly recruited doctors at the middle of last year during the industrial dispute between Residents Doctors of the hospital and the state government who did not receive salary since they were employed about six months back were said to have left immediately after one month pay in January. 

With the burden of persisting delay in payment of salaries, resulting in not meeting up commitments and challeging workloads, occasioned by mass exodus of their colleagues, the few remaining doctors and nurses in the hospital were over stressed. As fate would have it, late Dr Rosemary Chukwudube, have been one of the few remaining doctors that was carrying the can in this regard. According to source , the condition of service is appalling as one nurse is made to attend to over 30 patients against the international standard of one nurse to four patients. According to one of the Doctors in the hospital, “It’s against the Hippocratic oath for any doctor to offer service when his emotional, mental, physical and psychological well-being is not stable. “Doctors have aggregated the importance of these issues before the state government, for it to understand the effect of the afformentioned on the performance of service providers. But it seems the present government has no capacity to understand the place of welfare of doctors in the delivery of quality medical services”. To many, the death of Dr Rosemary Chukwudube was the peak of lukewarm attitude of the state government towards the ‘service providers’ in the said hospital which the state NMA has been labouring to address, all this while without success. “The results of not addressing the welfare of Doctors as we have been clamouring for years is what has started happening with the collapse and death of one of our doctors, Rosemary last Monday.let us hope this ugly scenario ends here”, a doctor who craved anonymity lamented in the hospital. As a HOD, in accordance with new duty roaster, Dr Rosemary was on duty last Thursday, which turned out to be her last professional duty in the hospital and on earth. While on duty that fateful day, she got the news of alert of month of March from colleagues. She had waited for her own alert in order to source for drugs and attend to other domestic issues that have been yearning for attention. It never come before she closed from work. With confused mind she left for home, hoping that her own alert would come.

 A friend was said to have impressed upon her not to worry about it, that it may be a mere delay due to poor networks. That did not make any sense to her, as she was quoted as saying continuously before she left the hospital that fateful day: “my alert, my own alert, chineke! Why, why! Hmmmmmmmmn”. On strechter she came back to the hospital to be attended to on Friday. A Doctor friend from a neighborhood that called at her house in the Lokogoma Phase 11area of Lokoja around 4.pm to pull a joke saw her in crisis. She demanded to be left alone at home , rather than to be taken to hospital. Disturbed of her state , her doctor friend sent for ambulance and a stretcher from her hospital. She survived the first attack, second crisis ,but failed the third one. The Doctors tried all the medical tricks to revived her after the third attack that relapsed her to coma, but failed for absence of some drugs and key medical equipment needed in the intensive care unit of the hospital. Not even reinforcement of Doctor colleagues from Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja could revived her. The Doctors had wanted to open oxygen gas cylinder to admnister it to her, there was no spaner to open the cylinder. As at the time, they succeeded in opening the oxygen cylinder, she was clinically dead. “I saw an oxygen cylinder fixed to her lifeless body, she did not come back, I don’t know when tears started rolling from my eyes”, her doctor friend recounted. Also, they had wanted to apply suction machine to clear mucous or foaming from her mouth and nostril to ease respiration, it was not available in the amenity ward in the hospital. And Money to buy adrenalin drug and run some tests on her , was not there as it was discovered that her Bank account has no credit load . Late Dr Rosemary’s death triggered off confusion in the ward, as 3 nurses and a doctor who were on duty that particular time collapsed, with one relapsing to coma. The said Doctor, Nuhu Idris did not get his march alert, like late Rosemary. He was quoted as saying, he could not sleep for days because of omission of his name from pay roll without reason. The husband of the late 42-yr Doctor, Chukwudube commended the role of the medical personnel, especially the doctor colleagues of his late wife for playing a yeoman job during the crisis that led to the death of his wife. Chukwudube who said the story of her generosity is everywhere noted, that is a good testimony of her life that will remain a pride of the family.

The state commissioner of health,Dr Saka HarunaAudu said health workers that caters for the populace deserved to be well catered for otherwise we will record some unpalatable occurrences in the health sector of the state “We received the shocking news of the Death of Dr Rosemary Chukwudebe, and wish to extend our deepest condolence to her friends, families and colleagues. We pray God grants them the fortitude to bear the loss”,he said. He added that the Ministry of Health will collaborate with the family over the burial arrangement as well as ensuring that other areas of assistance by the State Government is given a deserving attention, stressing that the entire people of the State will miss her invaluable service.




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