THIS DAY
Bayo Ohu, a journalist with The Guardian Newspapers, died from gunshot wounds inflicted by assailants who invaded his Lagos residence in September 2009. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, but medical staff on duty refused to admit him for treatment. Their reason? The relatives did not come with a police report. While his relatives were making efforts to take him to another hospital, he died on the way.
Despite the widespread condemnation that followed the action of the hospital, the practice of rejecting gunshot victims without a police report has become a vexed issue in the country.
Similar incidents include the 2008 case of Saka Saula, the then chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, who was shot in his house. A nearby private hospital refused to treat him. He died while he was being transported to a public hospital.
In September 2023, Miss Greatness Olorunfemi, a victim of ‘One Chance’ commercial vehicle criminals in Abuja, lost her life due to the same non-availability of a police report. The victim was pushed out of a moving vehicle and allegedly rejected by staff at Maitama Hospital, Abuja when she was rushed there by good Samaritans.
There have been a series of reports over the years of gunshot injury victims being denied treatment at medical facilities following the demand for a police report.
Health experts state that depending upon the severity and extent of the injury, gunshot victims can die from hemorrhage, shock or damage to vital organs. Moreover, they may be at risk of infection, especially tetanus and gas gangrene. Therefore, such emergencies need a quick response, not a denial of treatment.
In Nigeria, many of the gunshot victims bleed to death due to delays in treatment. Hospitals, which are meant to be places where lives are saved and where those in need of emergency help are attended to, often appear to be unresponsive to the demands of time.
It is bewildering that many Nigerian hospitals are still rejecting accident, rape, robbery and gunshot victims.
Experts have noted that it is unethical for a doctor to reject a patient who has come to seek healthcare services, stressing that if a doctor or hospital cannot treat a patient, such a doctor or hospital should refer the patient to a higher hospital, rather than reject the patient.
Rejection of patients from medical facilities contributes to avoidable deaths of patients as emergency cases are also turned down.
This occurrence in our hospitals is a clear contravention of the human rights of patients, and yet this practice is still widespread, occurring in medical facilities across the country.
