President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has narrated how his grandchild became a victim of medical neglect at an undisclosed government hospital.
The former Akwa Ibom State governor opened the lid on the incident during the ministerial screening on the floor of the upper chamber on Friday, August 4, 2023.
Akpabio spoke during the screening of Dr Tunji Alausa, a ministerial nominee of President Bola Tinubu.
While Alausa was being grilled by the lawmakers on issues in Nigeria’s healthcare system, Akpabio admitted to being a victim of alleged medical negligence that caused his grandchild to haemorrhage to death.
“Just like every other person here, I have also been a victim of medical neglect. In 2019, my first grandchild died through bleeding at a Federal Medical Centre. He was receiving drip and it tussled in the night and there was no help.
“No doctor, no nurse. He bled until he lost 60 per cent of his blood and almost going mental, he struggled and fell on the floor. He was looking for water to drink. He rolled on the floor outside and entered the early morning dew,” the Senate President said.
Akpabio also revealed that his grandchild was later found in the dew the next morning.
Continuing, he said: “By that time, he had gone into a coma. I was on my way to Port Harcourt for the 2019 rally when they called me. When I got to the medical centre, I struggled with my physician to revive the boy but to no avail. I struggled. They went and brought a defibrillator to attempt to revive the heart, but it did not work.
“When I inquired when the defibrillator was last used, I was told the machine stopped working years ago. I used my hand and struggled with my personal physician, I could not revive him. I had to close his eyes and put him in the mortuary.
“Almost every family has suffered from what is going on in our hospitals. The doctor on duty that night had an emergency in his private clinic and he had to abandon the hospital to rush to go and attend to private patients in his private clinic.”