Investigations have shown that many Nigerians are now on the edge for fear of wrong diagnosis. It was found that the growing cases of medical errors contributed largely to heath complications of many patients.
Some of the victims and their relations painted gory tales of woes as they recounted their ordeals. Following are their accounts..
A bereaved woman, Mrs Okoro, who lost her only child to wrong diagnosis, was full of tears as she narrated how her daughter died after Lassa fever injection was administered on her.
She said that the daughter was sick and taken to a private hospital where her condition was improving before her father requested that she be transferred to another hospital for proper treatment.
According to her, “Immediately she got there, she was placed on admission and a doctor said that she exhibited symptoms of Lassa fever. A test was conducted to confirm the ailment, but the doctor did not wait for the result of the test before giving the girl Lassa fever injection. She started gasping for breath after she received the injection and later died.”
Mrs Okoro said that other medical workers in the hospital confirmed that her child died after receiving the injection, because she did not have the disease, claiming the “positive” result of the test conducted a week after the incident must have been manipulated by the hospital management to exonerate it from the mistake .
Another victim, Mr Femi Bashorun narrated how he went to a private clinic in Abeokuta to complain of fever, but was given a wrong treatment.
Also, Joy Adigwe said she was wrongly diagnosed for chicken pox and placed on compulsory admission in a private hospital, whereas she was only having a reaction to a substance.
For Juliet Okoro, she visited a private hospital at 11pm after continuous stooling and loss of strength. She said the nurse she met insisted she must take certain drugs and injections. Despite complaining she had no food or strength, the nurse said it was either she took the injection or she left.
It was gathered that Mrs Grace Akomolafe was given anti-tetanus and rabies drugs after complaining of fever. It was at the point of getting the drugs the error was discovered. She revealed that when the Doctor was challenged, she admitted it was an error on her part.
Miss Agnes Jude narrated that after a successful appendix surgery, a nurse administered two doses of wrong injection on her. She said it was when the surgeon and a consultant came to check her the following morning, that they discovered she should not have taken the two doses of injection administered on her.
While Miss Damilola Agbaje was wrongly administered an abortion pill for a toilet infection, Mrs Cynthia Okoye said she was not given the right injection after she had given birth despite the fact it was written on her file by the nurse on duty.
Mrs Lilian Ejike and Dr Layi Oladipupo, another victims said in separate chats that they were wrongly diagnosed for Hepatitis B at different hospitals, saying it was after they went for same test at two other hospitals that they discovered the results given to them were wrong.
Reacting, a Senior Doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Dr Abosede Ilesanmi, stated that many private hospitals adopted the use of unqualified medical personnel to administer treatment which had led to several medical errors.
He also blamed various ministries of health for shirking their responsibilities in monitoring hospitals across the country to checkmate wrong medical practices.
The senior doctor called for proper monitoring of hospitals in the country and strict punishment on unregistered, unlicensed and unqualified medical personnel, warning that such exercise should be carried out without any form of political interference .
As part of efforts to curb the rate of wrong diagnosis generally, Ilesanmi identified proper training and retraining of medical personnel, provision of adequate facilities and modern diagnostic tools for hospitals.
Also, a retired Head of Nursing Services (HNS), Ondo State Specialist Hospital Akure (Now UNIMETH, Akure), Mrs Esther Abidakun pointed out that the use of quack nurses contributes to several medical errors in the country.
Besides, she identified that many Nigerians prefer to patronise private clinics or street nurses instead of visiting government or well-equipped private hospitals while most private clinics preferred to use them because they could not afford to pay professional nurses.
She added that some of them, in a bid to extort patients, split injections they could have combined into one or two syringes so that patients could pay more.
She lamented that all efforts were made in the past by associations of medical doctors, pharmacists and professional nurses, but did not yield any result due to the fact that most of the hospital owners had engagement with top officials in government.
She suggested that the federal government should enact strict laws criminalising the use of unqualified medical personnel to deter hospitals.
On his own, the Senior Registrar, Department of Family Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Dr Samuel Aluko, recommended recruitment of more qualified personnel, proper training of medical students, reduction of doctors’ workloads, provision of conducive working environment and modern facilities as part of the way out.
The Hope
