A Missing Patient From Ogun Hospital, Family Blames Nurses

A 40-year-old woman has gone missing three weeks after she was admitted at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun state.
Family members of the missing patient identified as Ajarat Muritala have blamed her disappearance from the hospital’s female ward on the negligence of the nurses. They also lamented that police investigation into her disappearance was slow, adding that no progress had been made in finding the woman since she went missing on Wednesday, October 12.

Punch reports that about six nurses were with the woman and other patients in the ward before she was discovered missing. It was learned that Ajarat, mother-of-four, was receiving treatment for a heart-related disease at the hospital after going into a coma on Thursday, October 11. She was admitted to the emergency and accident ward of the hospital. She was later taken to the female ward, where she went missing after regaining consciousness. Her husband, Muftau Muritala, said the hospital management had not shown concern for her whereabouts. ”She was supposed to go for treatment at the hospital on October 19. But on October 11, her condition got worse.

We rushed her to the hospital and I was told to pay N10,000 admission fee, which I did. ”She was placed on oxygen all through that day. In the evening, I went to pay for a scan she was to have the following day. At about 10am the next day, some nurses wheeled her into the X-ray centre for a scan. ”She was taken to the female ward after the scan. A doctor came to attend to her and she was served a meal. After she finished eating, she said she wanted to rest. Her elder sister, my second wife and my mother, were with her in the ward. They were later told to go outside.

”I went into the ward around 12pm to check her but she was not on her sick bed. There were about six nurses in that ward. They told me to check her in the toilet. ”My relatives outside joined me and we searched everywhere but we couldn’t find her. We rushed to the gate to inform the security men and they said they didn’t see any patient. Meanwhile, the nurses didn’t help us to search for her until they handed over to their colleagues on afternoon duty,” he said.

It was said that the Sagamu police division officers have arrested the chief security officer of the hospital and the nurses that were on duty after the incident was reported at about 3 pm. The Chief Medical Director of the hospital was said to have begged for the release of the suspects, allegedly promising to find the patient within 24 hours. He, however, did not produce the victim within the period.