Husband blames LUTH for wife’s death

A Lagos-based man, Mr. Adeyemi Oduyoye, has accused the authorities of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi- Araba, Lagos, of negligence.

Oduyoye, who spoke to our correspondent on Monday, claimed that his wife, Folake,who was on admission at Ward A4 of the hospital, died due to mismanagement of her case by the hospital authorities.

According to him, health workers detained his 35-year-old wife because he was unable to settle her medical bills.

Odudoye said his wife was referred to LUTH in September when she developed complications after undergoing a Caesarean Section at a private hospital in Surulere.

He said, “She was at the Intensive Care Unit for 31 days, which cost us over N1.6m and I could only pay N300,000 after they discharged her. I promised that I would give them the rest but they refused to let her go home.

“She developed another complication while we were being detained and they refused to give her any further treatment in spite of my plea. She got worse and died. If they did not value money above my wife’s life, she would be alive today.”

Reacting to Odudoye’s allegations, LUTH’s Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Hope Nwawolo, said the authorities did all that was necessary for the deceased while she was admitted at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

She said, “That LUTH treated a patient for 31 days at the ICU unit without much of a deposit is the evidence to the fact that doctors and other health workers cared for her. If she had received treatment in a private hospital’s ICU for 31 days, the bill would have been far more. We cared for her.”