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Imagine someone trapped in an elevator in free fall from the 10th floor of a building! Imagine the person’s indescribable horror! Imagine the horrific consequences when the elevator hits the ground!
It can be said that Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor, experienced death before she died on August 1, following what Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a statement, described as “a mechanical failure within the elevator at the Doctors’ quarters of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island.” A graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, she died two weeks before the completion of her one-year housemanship.
What happened? How? Why? Was the tragedy preventable? Who is to blame? These are major questions that demand answers.
Diaso’s colleague at the hospital, identified as Moye, painted a chilling picture of the incident in a social media post. The victim was said to have been on her way to the ground floor to collect food delivered by a dispatch rider that evening. A frightening bang drew attention to the elevator.
The eyewitness described the initial rescue efforts and the victim’s pathetic situation. Her account: “They tried to use rods to open it, to be sure it wasn’t a joke. They finally opened it and the sight was gruesome. Muffled sounds of excruciating pain and agony became apparent.
“Her forehead had a horizontal cut; her mouth had another one and she had raccoon eyes. She was lying in between the base of the elevator and the ground floor, with the engine hanging over her head, which meant any miscalculation in movement, she’ll be crushed to instant death.
“She was literally sandwiched in between the hanging engine and below the ground floor with blood on broken glasses and fractured limbs. It’s not a sight to describe.”
A precious period of about 40 minutes passed before rescuers called to the scene arrived, according to the eyewitness. “I remember telling her to relax and that help was coming,” she said. The narrative continued: ‘Don’t tell me to relax, tell them to get me out of here.’ We eventually got her out and she kept saying she thinks she’ll die.”
Eventually she died in the hospital’s emergency ward. Was the alleged wasted rescue time a critical factor? The eyewitness said: “Emergency care was almost zero and inside a hospital for that matter. There was no blood in the hospital.” Would she have died if she had received prompt and proper care?
The Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State zone, Benjamin Olowojebutu, blamed the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) for the tragedy. He lamented: “In that same building, there is no water, there is no light.” He added that the agency had failed to respond to multiple complaints on defects and inadequacies regarding the doctors’ quarters, including the allegedly faulty elevator.
Reassuringly, Governor Sanwo-Olu immediately initiated “a thorough investigation into the cause of the mechanical failure,” promising that the investigation “will be conducted with utmost transparency and fairness, leaving no room for any biases or favouritism.” That is the right thing to do.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, was reported to have confirmed the arrest of three persons, whom he did not name, in connection with the incident. It’s unclear how the suspects were involved.
Ironically, during his inspection tour of ongoing medical infrastructure projects in the state, in August 2022, Governor Sanwo-Olu said his administration had begun the construction of doctors’ quarters in new medical facilities to improve the conditions of service for doctors and other healthcare professionals.
His words: “In the new hospitals we are building, we have included the construction of doctors’ quarters just as we have in Lagos Island General Hospital. We are currently building quarters for doctors in Gbagada General Hospital and another one in General Hospital, Isolo. This is to improve the conditions of service for our doctors and other health professionals supporting them.”
At the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, where the doctors’ quarters in question are located, and where Diaso died, he inspected the first, second and third phases of the work done at the facility, which included the redesigned and upgraded hospital’s Accident and Emergency section, Surgical Emergency wards, and Training rooms. Others were the Pharmacy department, Catering section, Eye Clinic, Administrative Building, Ambulance Bay, Relative Waiting Area and Children’s Surgical Wards. He said the final phase would ensure a full upgrade of the Pathology Department and construction of new wards to accommodate more patients on referral.
That was a year ago. It’s unclear whether the issue of the problematic doctors’ quarters at the hospital came up at the time, considering claims that the killer elevator had been faulty for some years, among other alleged negatives at the place.
Diaso’s tragic death was preventable. It further highlights the issue of escalating exodus of healthcare professionals from Nigeria, which has been blamed on poor leadership, corruption, poor remuneration and toxic work environment, among others.
Indeed, the exit figures relating to healthcare professionals in the country are alarming. More than 9,000 medical doctors were reported to have left the country to work in the UK, Canada and America, from 2016 to 2018. Also, more than 700 medical doctors trained in Nigeria were said to have relocated to the UK from December 2021 to May 2022, a period of six months.
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Uche Ojinmah, observed at an event in October 2022: “Nigeria-trained doctors are leaving in droves for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.” The situation has not changed. Healthcare professionals are leaving the country as if escaping from a hopeless situation.
There are consequences. The country’s doctor-patient ratio is alarmingly low, and is nowhere near the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standard doctor-patient ratio of one doctor per 600 people.
With only about four doctors available per 10,000 people in Nigeria, it is unsurprising that there are issues regarding availability of, and access to, quality primary healthcare services in the country. There is no doubt that the problem is compounded by the flight of healthcare professionals.
When a doctor dies the way Diaso did, connected with a neglected malfunctioning elevator at the doctors’ quarters of a state-owned hospital, it’s bad for the image of health authorities in the state.
Peoplesmind
