A lawyer has narrated how he lost a client’s brother who was in prison due to lack of medical care.
He stated this on his Twitter page saying that his client was called to pick up his brother who was sick, only to get there and see his brother in a coma.
Hospitals that he was taken to reject him due to unavailability of bed space and he eventually died.
Read the thread…
Nigeria kills everyone within her reach
I have a sad story to tell about our Nigerian Prisons (now called Nigerian Correctional Service- whatever that means) & how their negligence led to the death of a client’s brother.
On 11th December 2019, a client of ours received a call from Ikoyi Prisons that his brother who has been there as an inmate for over one year was critically ill.
He rushed down to the Prisons only to meet his elder brother and father of three in a coma at the prison hospital. He was on a drip and the attending nurse told our client that death surely awaits his brother unless he raises money so that he could be treated elsewhere as the brother’s case was now beyond what they could handle.
The nurse also said that the drip and drugs given so far to the brother was provided through the contributions made by the medical staff on the ground. Our client thanked her and left to go and discuss with other family members on how to urgently raise cash.
Later that day, our client called the nurse and told her that they have raised some money. The nurse then told him that his brother will be referred to General Hospital, Onikan the day being 12th December 2019.
On the morning of 12.12.19, our client was at the General Hospital Onikan where his brother has been brought to but the hospital rejected him saying there was no bed space. That was true as our Client saw patients littered everywhere and some receiving drips while sitting.
Our Client and the prison warder on the ground took his brother to Nigerian Air Force Base Hospital (NAF) also on Lagos Island and they said they had no bed space and that our client’s brother’s case was beyond them.
After so much persuasion, NAF admitted him on compassionate grounds but recommended that he be rushed to their Ikeja hospital or LASUTH.
Nigerian Prisons said they would not allow the guy to be taken to Ikeja because their jurisdiction does not extend to Ikeja (whatever that means).
NAF hospital wrote referral letters to LASUTH, NAF Ikeja & General Hospital Onikan (see picture below) but the Prisons insisted he could only be treated within Lagos Island.
The patient slept at NAF on the 12th, On 13.12.19, our client went back to General Hospital, Onikan and after pleading, they created a bed space for his brother.
His brother was then admitted there and placed on oxygen immediately. His condition was already very bad.
On 14.12.19, a medical consultant who saw our client’s brother said the best place for him to be attended to in his condition was LUTH or LASUTH and not at that General Hospital.
He asked the prison warder that they should see to it that he is transferred to any of those hospitals but the warder insisted they couldn’t take him anywhere outside Lagos Island.
At exactly 7.58 pm on 14th December 2019, the 44yr old man gave up the ghost. The Prisons made our Client sign certain documents stating that he would not sue them for his brother’s death before they authorized the hospital to release the corpse to them.
The family are licking their wounds & planning the burial of their brother, father, husband & son now It must then be asked what kind of country this is, where no premium is placed on human life.
The Prisons won’t allow an inmate to receive Medicare outside certain areas even when their lives are @ stake yet they go to courts in those areas every day to pick up inmates.
Nigeria is finished but let’s keep pretending.
May the soul of the dead and the countless who die needless and avoidable deaths every minute in this godforsaken country, find rest.
