Ruth Semilore
A Lagos-based mother of three, Okoye Ogochukwu, has cried out for justice after facing complications from poorly executed surgeries at Faith City Hospital in Ajao Estate.
In an exclusive interview with newsmen, Ogochukwu said she developed swelling and complications due to particles left inside her when she underwent a C-section in May 2023, to deliver her baby.
Following the delivery, she noted that she began feeling severe pain in her abdomen with swollen legs.
When she complained, she noted that instead of taking it with seriousness, her doctor, Ejim Chibike, made a joke about her pains, saying she was getting fat and needed to exercise.
She stated,
“On the 2nd of May 2023, I was at Faith Clinic at Ajao estate. I had been admitted there days before for a caesarean section. On that, I had my baby girl via CS and three days later, I was discharged. The doctor who did the CS and saw me through my antenatal was Dr Ejim Chibike. So, after the childbirth, I noticed that my legs had begun to swell up whereas they didn’t swell up during my pregnancy.
“But after I had the surgery, I noticed my legs were swelling up which I complained about and they said it was normal, I was discharged and I went home. I had a routine appointment with Dr Ejim, a week check-up after I had given birth. I came to the hospital and I complained to him that my stomach was painful to touch, and my legs and whole body were in serious pain.
“So, I complained to him that I didn’t know why I was still feeling like this even though that was my first CS, I’ve had two other pregnancies and my stomach should have gone down but the doctor made a joke about it that I should lose weight that I’m getting fat.”
Only a few days later, her condition took a drastic turn for the worse. She was rushed back to the hospital, where she was told that Chibike was unavailable. Instead, another doctor, Johnson, attended to her and ordered a series of scans and X-rays where the result showed retained products of conception in her womb.
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With this, Ogochukwu said she underwent another surgery to remove the object, noting that despite undergoing a second surgery at the same hospital to remove the object, her condition worsened as the surgeon left some stitches unremoved, leaving her with another hopeless as the pain continued.
She said,
“I then insisted on seeing Dr Chibike since he carried out the caesarean section after staying in the hospital for days and it got to a point that it was my husband making noise about the whole issue that we needed to see Dr Chibike. Later we noticed that he was practically avoiding us as they kept saying he was busy attending to other patients. Despite being in the hospital for five days, he didn’t come to see me.
“After my husband’s outburst, they came and told us that I needed to go to LASUTH to do a CT scan and we did and came back to the hospital. On getting back, they had gotten a general surgeon because they didn’t have one before. Just a look at me, he asked if I had gone through a CS and replied yes I did. He could not even touch me because I was in severe pain.
“I was then booked in for surgery the next day by 8 am. On the night before the surgery, they brought a bill of almost N1.4m which we paid and they carried out the surgery the next day. When I regained consciousness after the surgery, I noticed pipes connected to my body. When I asked what they were meant for, I was told that when they opened me up, the abscesses had gotten to some delicate parts of my body so they couldn’t reach there to get the abscesses out.
“Eventually, a few days after the surgery, the surgeon came and removed the pipes and I was discharged after asking us to pay a bill of about N800,000. We pleaded with them for a discount but they declined. My husband then paid the bills and I was discharged. Meanwhile, Dr Chibike practically disappeared. They asked me to come a few days later to remove the stitches.”
She added,
“We were relieved that everything was over. So, I went back for that and the doctor was pulling the stitches painfully and I was shouting in pain all through the process. So, another doctor you heard my scream came in and saw what was going on. He said the doctor removing the stitches was not doing it well so he took over.
“Unfortunately, the new doctor didn’t remove all the stitches leaving a part of it in my abdomen. So days after, my stomach started swelling again and I was in pain. So, I called my aunty who advised me to rush to a hospital in Oshodi to do another scan for us to know what was wrong.
“Meanwhile, before this, I had started discharging abscesses. So, when I was getting ready to go to the hospital, we discovered a stitch from a hole in my under stomach which was from the initial surgery. The whole busted and the abscesses were just flowing out in large quantity from the whole. It was a mess. I had to use cotton wool to pad it up then we raced it to the hospital.”
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In the span of just two months, she said she underwent three traumatic surgeries, each compounding her suffering, adding that doctors eventually informed her that her womb was severely damaged and she would never be able to have more children.
“I wanted to have three children, but now I can’t have any more,” she said, her voice heavy with grief.
As if the physical and emotional toll wasn’t enough, she said the financial strain became unbearable as the family spent over N3 million on medical bills, with no assistance or acknowledgement from Faith Clinic, where the nightmare began, adding that when they sought compensation from the hospital, they were offered a mere N150,000—a sum that felt like an insult to the pain and suffering they endured.
She is demanding full reimbursement of the medical costs and a formal apology from Faith Clinic, which has yet to respond to their demands.
“They caused all this pain and still refused to take responsibility. I want the money they extorted from us returned, and I want a sincere apology for the emotional, financial, and physical agony they put me through,” she demanded.
All efforts to get the reaction of the management of the hospital proved abortive as calls, texts and email messages were not replied to.
