How FMC abandons pregnant women to die in labour rooms

Mrs. Mary Jane Iyama (not real name) 36, got married in June 2015 at Asaba, the capital of Delta State. Getting married at 36 for a lady is not actually the best of time, although many factors are always at play. This is so because her years of child bearing are gradually tilting to the end at this particular age. Hence, the annoyance that followed when Mary Jane lost her baby at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, due to the negligence of the doctors on duty as at the time of her delivery.

A woman's horrible experience in the labour room

At times, some waiting mothers are aware of when the labour pain is set to occur following their knowledge having delivered babies for a period of time.

For her, she was actually not aware being that was the first pregnancy she was having at the time in question. The time was midnight and the labour pain began. Thereafter, she was rushed to the hospital as it has always been the case.

She told Legit.ng that, “the nurses and doctors on duty at that night were good and nice to her, having battled throughout the night, in the morning, the nurses and doctors that came were not as friendly as the ones that handed over to them, but before they came in, there was another lady still in labour lying close to me. If you see hes, you will know she is like the wife of one of the politicians in town.”

Somehow, the doctors and nurses concentrated on the other lady and abandoned her to her fate. As it happened, she felt like pushing as the baby made way inside the womb.

But. to avoid pushing against the wishes of the doctors, she tapped one of the doctors that concentrated on the other lady and she was shoved aside, “I was feeling like pushing, I now tapped the doctor, and said I feel like pushing, he pushed my hand away. I was even in the pre-labour ward, not yet in the labour room. He said can’t bear some pains?

“I told him that I know when I feel like pushing, he just insulted me and left me and continued attending to the other woman. The lady was later carried to the theatre, one nurse followed the doctors, another remained. The one that remained was just drinking tea. I now called her and said I feel like pushing, she did not even answer me. After drinking her tea, she walked away and left me in the room. So, nobody was with me again,” Mrs. Iyama narrated.

Death

As the drama between her and the nurses was getting messier, she felt she must take action to save the life of her baby, lest the baby forces its way out and the unexpected could happen since no nurse nor doctor was with her in the labour room.

“Again, I felt like pushing, then I told myself if I sit down here waiting for these people, this baby might just come and fall down because the bed is high. Then I saw my husband just passed, I decided to go and call him to look for a nurse, while I did that, another pushing urge came again, but I resisted it.

“So, when I came down as I was walking from the bed, half way into the door, I started feeling like pushing again. The pushing urge was almost getting into my nerves, going beyond control. And due to the fact that I was now standing, it would be easy, you know if a child is coming.

"It pushes on its own, not only the woman, at least it’s a living being. So, as I was trying to bear it, the baby just pushed itself out and hit its head on the bear floor gbim, the cord cut and I started bleeding. It was then one of the doctors that was passing then held the child back and opened the door, saw blood everywhere, that was when they started doing emergency work on me.

According to her, she was later carried into the labour ward because the placenta went back and got itself attached. She said the doctor that threw away her hand at the beginning became the most serious doctor who wanted to carry out all activities to rescue her life and that of the baby. She said the doctors almost strangled life out of her so that she won’t say what transpired in the labour room between her and the doctors and nurses.

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“Six hours after that incidence, the child died. And you can see the scolding this doctor gave me in the labour room, the insult from the nurses and the cleaners, they said you want to put us in trouble. But I said I told you I was feeling like pushing, you did not listen to me. Look even as a doctor, he is supposed to know that a woman does not just push, it comes on its own, it will get to a point the woman cannot bear it, the child will push itself, it’s not a dead object, it’s a living being, but now they were blaming me that I did not wait for them and that I forcefully pushed the child out on my own.”

Mrs. Iyama was not the only woman who experienced this treatment from doctors of the Federal Medical Centre in Asaba. Many other women have also been subjected to greater level of inhuman treatment from those who are supposed to be caregivers and show love in the hospitals. Many women in the labour room, beside their children dying, have also died, while some die and their children survive.

Another woman bled to death

Mrs. Mary Akpobotu was one of the most unlucky women who went to the Federal Medical Center for delivery. Reports from other women revealed that she was actually referred from another hospital to the FMC.

Somehow, she had complications which the previous hospital could not handle and was referred to the centre with the belief that the FMC has medical personnel and facilities to attend to her delivery and settle her complications.

But the reverse was the case, rather than receive the needed attention from the medical doctors, she was ignored and died with the baby while the doctors watched till life went out of her, perhaps she had no money to deposit before she could be attended to.

Legit.ng’s investigation revealed that the said woman was referred from another hospital, but, because she was not the immediate patient of the FMC, the doctors ignored her and she passed on.

Sources at the hospital told Legit.ng that the woman was heard shouting in pain but all of a sudden, the shouts died down and she remained lifeless on the bare floor.

“People started talking in low tones. I did not hear any noise again. I was in the labour room, I did not hear, it was when I came out that I heard the story. How the woman was in labour, they referred her to the FMC but they ignored her because she is not their immediate patient and may be has no money to deposit.

“May be the woman is not that rich. The woman started stretching with the labour pain and gave up. When the woman gave up, the husband started calling her, she did not answer, he now discovered that his wife had died. The man again shouted, he thereafter fainted, but his wife died with the pregnancy,” hospital sources narrated to Legit.ng.

Challenges

Abel Ogine, whose wife delivered at the hospital, has similar tales to tell. For him the Federal Medical Centre in Asaba has nothing to write home about. He said if a woman must deliver her baby at the FMC, her husband must be well loaded with cash to attend to all their financial demands. He, however, faulted the treatment FMC metes out to their patients. He said FMC’s treatment is not too fair.

“I remember vividly when my wife was pregnant, she told me when her body was showing signs. For FMC doctors to take her to the labour room, there was so much delay. We were directed to do a number of tests which I cannot remember. Look if a poor man goes to FMC, the hospital will not assist that person. If not that before my wife’s labour pain came, God has blessed me with some money and I was having my ATM card by my side, I can’t tell what would have happened,” Mr. Ogine narrated.

 “The doctors told me to pay N15,000 for blood, I told them my wife has enough blood and I will not pay N15,000. It was from 3am I started running from place to place in that hospital till the early hours of the day. With what I have seen and even the way the nurses were talking, they have no regard for anybody. The nurses were not friendly with me as a man. To go to FMC, you must pray for safe delivery and the kind of nurses you will meet at the hospital,” he advised.

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However, he said the greatest challenge in the FMC is not the doctors but the nurses. He said the doctors are ready to deliver at their own time when they are called to do so. But the nurses, he said, are the ones that will tell the doctor “leave her alone, it’s not yet time while the woman is in pains.”

Nurses attitude

His wife, Faith, who delivered at the hospital, described some of the nurses as people possessed with demons. To her, the nurses do not care for the women during delivery. “When I was there, some of the women were falling from the bed, they said if she like let her die there. The luck I had was that at the time of my delivery, the bad ones changed over to the good ones, that was what saved me.

“Some were behaving like demons. FMC nurses know that whether they treat you or not, their salaries will be paid, so nothing concerns them of whatever happens to you. That is it. The story is the same in almost all hospitals. Abandonment is normal occurrence in FMCs nationwide”.

Public Relations Officer 

The Public Relations Officer of the FMC in Asaba, Nnamdi Ogbogo, said there are no such occurrences of abandonment that leads to maternal and child death in the hospital. He also said such reports are only lodged by relations or friends of people who are affected.

His explanations may not be unconnected with the fact that the public relations office is part of management and being a management staff, he is certainly unaware of what obtains in the labour room as no doctor or nurse will reveal their unbecoming action to management to avoid the sledge hammer against them.

Reports reveal that Nigeria records one of the world’s highest rates of maternal death in hospitals. One in every 13 Nigerian women dies at childbirth. Although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of healthcare services in Nigeria continue to fail women and children, leading to unwarranted death of this vulnerable group of people in the country.

The United Nations Funds for Population activities recently said that 110 Nigerian women die from pregnancy and childbirth related complications on a daily basis. It revealed that out of 2,443,000 pregnant women deaths recorded worldwide between 2003 and 2009, 90 percent of the cases occurred in developing countries including Nigeria.

Source: Legit.ng