'Late Expectant Mother Got Best Of Care At FMC But Discharged Against Medical Advice'

- The Daily Crucible

Fresh facts have emerged, and all suggesting that the Federal Medical Centre(FMC), Abeokuta, Ogun State, had followed due medical procedure to attend to patient Josephine Odufowora, an expectant mother, when she presented herself at the facility for medical attention.

Josephine was referred to the FMC from State Hospital, Ota, for better antenatal care and despite being taken care with initial noticeable improvement, the family knowingly discharged her against medical advice.

She reportedly died on June 16 in a private hospital afterwards. She also lost her twins in the process.

Josephine's grieving father, Mr Jide Olayemi, has since been blaming the FMC Abeokuta for the death of his daughter and loss of the twins.

Olayemi claimed that health workers did not attend to his daughter until six hours after she reported at the Centre. He also claimed the Centre made the daughter go through many tests at outrageous prices, wasting their time and resources whereas there were neither beds nor doctors to take her as in patient.

"I took my daughter to FMC in anticipation that it has various specialist doctors, incubators, modernized health care gadgets, etc.,as we were told at the General hospital.

"We arrived at FMC on the 13th June around 9:30pm. We met some doctors and nurses at the entrance of the ICU Emergency Ward. The look on their Faces was as good as those in a comedy hall after seeing my daughter very uncomfortable with her pregnancy.

"For over 4 hours, my daughter was not attended to in ICU emergency ward,no bed space, untill a formal agreement of #18,500 weekly payment for bed space before she was finally attended to.. They kept ordering series of tests, scans and drugs, amounting to hundreds of thousands of naira.

"It never crossed my mind that no doctor would attend to her after all the payment. The second day, an anonymous woman came to my wife and told her to take my daughter to a private hospital if she really loves her, as FMC won't attend to your daughter, they only want to extort you," Olayemi said.

The man has also been wondering why FMC did not attend to his pregnant daughter for over six hours in an emergency Intensive Care Unit(ICU) ward just as he continued to ask why the Centre collected hundreds of thousands of Naira for Ward, bed space and for some other things without attending to her.

The deceased family later told a national daily that "It is only a mad man that would discharge himself from a hospital where he is being taken care of especially on such a controlled situation."

But checks by The Daily Crucible also revealed that the patient came to the hospital on 13th June, 2020 by 9.30 and by 10.10pm , she was seen and attended to by medical and nursing team on duty.

Also, the drugs and other consumables were needed and essential for her wellbeing even as

it is common for patients or their relatives to go home with the yet to be administered drugs especially in Josephine's situation where the family discharged her against medical advice.

Investigation revealed that the mother of Josephine discharged her daughter from FMC Abeokuta, signed the Discharge Against Medical Advice ( DAMA) form knowing the full implications of her action.

And chances are that the father of the deceased, Mr Jide Olayemi, did not know that his wife discharged their daughter against medical advice.

The Discharge Against Medical Advice (DAMA) Form signed by Mrs Beatrice Olayemi, the mother of the deceased reads:

"I Mrs Beatrice Olayemi of Abule Oke Road, Iyana Ilogbo via Ifo being fully aware of the consequences of my action, hereby undertakes the responsibility to discharge self/relative by name, Odufowora Josephine against medical advice.

The hospital authority is hereby exonerated from any likely complications that may arise hereafter.”

It was observed that Mrs Olayemi signed the DAMA form on 16th June, 2020 while the treatment of her daughter was progressing fully and quite against persuasions by the medical experts managing her condition.

Investigation further revealed that the health condition of the deceased was showing signs of improvements when she was discharged from the Centre but she died later at another hospital where her family, unfortunately, took her.

And reacting to the unfortunate incident, Mr. Segun Orisajo, FMC's Head, Public Relations and Information, dismissed Olayemi's position as "blatant lies" saying Josephine was at no point in time neglected nor left unattended to right from the time she was brought in unto the Centre till the time she subsequently discharged herself from our Centre.

According to Orisajo, "she was given the best of medical care."

The Centre's reaction titled: Re: Josephine Olayemi Odufowora: FMC Abeokuta Sets Records Straight, reads in full :

The attention of the authorities of Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta has been drawn to a trending news on the social media concerning the management of one of its patients, by name Josephine Olayemi Odufowora

The patient's father, in the trending write-up distorted facts and was indeed economical with truth.

Contrary to some concocted lies, falsehood and mischievous allegations about the Centre and its staff on the alleged mis-management and neglect of Josephine, the real fact was that the patient discharged herself from our Centre against medical advice while her treatment was fully on course.

As against blatant lies by her father, Josephine was at no point in time neglected nor left unattended to right from the time she was brought in unto our Centre till the time she subsequently discharged herself from our Centre.

She was given the best of medical care and services available at our disposal.

All the investigations she was asked to do were essential and crucial to her proper and holistic management.

Please find the summary of a blow by blow account of the process of Josephine's management by a team of our Medical personnel which we were convinced unambiguously set the records straight.

The above named patient was

referred from state hospital Ota on account of Thyroid disease in pregnancy at estimated gestational age of 25weeks complicated with severe lower abdominal pain.

The team on call saw her on the 13th of June, 2020 at 10:10pm.

The diagnosis of Graves’s disease in pregnancy (multiple gestations) was confirmed.

She was resuscitated and the following investigations were requested, FBC, urgent PCV, malaria parasite, Urinalysis, urine M/C/S, VDRL, HbsAg, RVS, HVS M/C/S/,E/U/CR, TFT,LFT, Obst. USS.

By the mid-night (14-06-2020) the medical team on call reviewed her. They agreed with the diagnosis and requested for more investigations, ECG, Echocardiography, thyroid scan and commenced her on Anti-thyroid medications.

Patient’s symptoms abated except for occasional abdominal pain (mild) and this was managed with analgesics.

She was reviewed on the 15th of June, 2020 with the result of Obstetric ultra sound. The demise of one twin was discussed with her and the need to manage the second twin conservatively was discussed with her due to her toxic clinical state and possible complications with aggressive intervention

She agreed to the management plan as explained.

Thereafter, the Prognosis was made known and essentially, the need to complete her outstanding investigations.

By the 16th of June, 2020; patient discharged herself against medical advice in spite of all persuasions.