More revelations have emerged regarding late young boy, Adebola Akin-Bright whose intestine went missing after a surgery to correct a ruptured appendix.
This comes as stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector on Thursday hailed the Lagos State House of Assembly over its investigation into the case of the missing organ.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, officials of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPNP), Lagos State Chapter and other medical practitioners spoke at a public hearing over the case which led to the death of Master Akin-Bright.
Also in attendance were the parents of the late Master Akin-Bright and Dr. Abayomi Baiyewu of Obitoks Hospital where two initial surgeries were carried out on the boy before his referral to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
While commending the House and its ad-hoc committee, chaired by Hon. Noheem Adams, for what they described as diligent investigation, they also agreed that there were infractions from the surgery as earlier reported by the House.
It would be recalled that ANPNP had issued a statement saying the committee carried out its investigation without having a medical doctor in the panel. The body had also accused the lawmakers of engaging in a witch-hunt by reducing the investigations to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ session for Dr. Baiyewu.
However, in a video documenting the investigation carried out by the committee which was watched by participants showed that Dr. Baiyewu was given enough time to defend himself.
He admitted to taking out three parts from Master Akin-Bright during surgery and agreed that the parts were ‘mistakenly discarded’ instead of taking them for histology.
It was also discovered from the video recording and evidence that Obitoks Hospital used only auxiliary nurses during the surgery.
Dr. Baiyewu also confirmed that the video played was a true reflection of what happened during the investigation.
Speaking after the video was played, Dr. Abayomi, who said the House carried out a thorough investigation, added that the Ministry of Health, through the Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) had temporarily suspended the operation of the theatre of Obitoks Hospital, which, he said, lacked standard medical procedures.
He said when Master Akin-Bright was brought to LASUTH, he was very unwell and needed to be stabilised before he would be operated upon.