Medical doctors under the aegis of Association Of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP), Lagos State Chapter, have picked holes in the report presented by a panel constituted by the Lagos State House of Assembly, to investigate the missing small intestine of late Akin Bright, who died Tuesday 19 September, 2023.
The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Noheem Adams, from their findings told his colleagues that the doctor who performed surgery twice on the boy was not a qualified surgeon. Sequel to the report, the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, ordered for the arrest of the owner of the private facility, Dr Abayomi Baiyewu of Obitoks Hospital in the Alimosho area of Lagos.
Reacting to the Lagos panel’s findings, members of ANPMP, in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Dr Makinde Akinlemibola and Dr Debo Adebiyi, faulted the report on the basis of the absence of a medical doctor on the team, which they said prevented the presentation of some medical technicalities involved in the processes.
“There was clear evidence that members of the panel were genuinely ignorant of some of the workings of the medical profession which became obvious from some of the questions posed during their sitting”, they remarked.
The doctors also condemned the arrest of Dr Baiyewu, saying there was no rationale whatsoever to call for the arrest of the doctor for simply doing his job, especially when the government hospital involved and his personnel are left untouched.
The statement read in parts “We have refrained from commenting on this issue in public for obvious reasons, we are however constrained to state some facts just to set the record straight because it is said that, “repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not”.
“We have been able to establish some privileged and incontrovertible facts based on available scientific evidence at our disposal some of which we will share here:
“The patient was first operated on at Obitoks Hospital 6th of March 2023 on account of ruptured appendix after he was referred from a medical centre where he was managed for typhoid enteritis.
“ It was discovered on the operation table that there was abscess which will require a different management approach to drain. (The appendix at that time must not be removed because of the abscess). The patient however got better afterwards.
“ The patient presented again about 3 months later and a diagnosis of obstructed intestine was made which necessitated operating on the abdomen again to relieve the obstruction.
“It is of a fact that the parents were invited into the operating room to see and confirm the point of obstruction and the 4 inches of the small intestine to be removed, out of the about 24 feet of the normal small intestine.
“It was also established that the patient was referred to the tertiary centre 8 days post-operation at the request of the parents. It is a fact that the patient was admitted in LASUTH on the 17th of June”.
The private medical practitioners however queried the delay after admission for 28 days before surgery was performed on the late Akin Bright at LASUTH, and the possibility of survival for 28 days without small intestine.
They also claimed to have ultrasound scan and X-ray tests conducted at LASUTH on the 19th September, which validated the presence of normal intestinal movement.
“ The patient was however eventually operated upon on the 14th of July 2023 (i.e. 28 days after admission in LASUTH). It is therefore strange how the story of the missing/disappearing intestine gained prominence in the media in a patient who was on admission in a public facility (LASUTH) for almost 28 days.
“The question to then ask is, how did the patient survive for 28 days without intestine?
“ In addition to this, It was also established as confirmed by ultrasound scan and X-ray done at LASUTH on the 19th of June (I.e. 3rd day on admission) that there was the presence of normal intestinal movement”, they maintained.
, Lagos State Chapter, have picked holes in the report presented by){kind=link}