By Pius Awunah
The panel set up to investigate the alleged neglect of accident victims at the Federal Medical Centre,Jabi,Abuja which went viral recently,has recommended reprimand of the medical team on duty that fateful day and a total overhaul of the Accident and Emmergency Unit of the hospital with
a neurosurgeon,Dr. Timothy Samaila as the new head.
Disclosing the panel’s recommendations to our reporter on Tuesday over the phone, the medical facility’s former Deputy Medical Director and Head, Clinical Services,Dr.Joseph Eziechila,said the panel absolved the eight workers who were on duty on that day of any negligence.
According to him,the panel noted that it was not the duty of the female doctor who was seen in the viral video hovering around the vehicle that brought the alleged victims,to bring them out from the vehicle but the porters and nurses.
Eziechila said those whose responsibilities were to bring out the patients from the vehicle were seen in the viral video making frantic efforts to attend to them but were hamstrung because the car was locked.
“You will observe in that video that a nurse was with gloves at the door of the car while a porter was with a wheelchair trying to open the door of the car, but it was locked.”
The ex-DMD partially blamed the Samaritan that brought the victims to the hospital as he refused to assist the female nurse to bring out the patients from the car but was rather busy filming the scene.
“No doubt, the Samaritan must be commended for picking up the patients and bringing them to our facility, but it should not have ended with that until the victims were revived or attended to.But in his case,as soon as he brought in the patients, he refused to assist further but was busy videoing the scene”,he added.
It would be recalled that in June this year, a video went viral where accident victims were brought to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC),Jabi,Abuja but were allegedly abandoned by the medical personnel on duty at the centre,prompting the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako to order an investigation into the matter to prevent future reoccurrence.
