Posted by By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye on
A family in Lagos is crying foul play over the disappearance of its daughter, who is suspected to have died after receiving treatment from a laboratory technologist who was posing as a doctor.
A family in Lagos is crying foul play over the disappearance of its daughter, who is suspected to have died after receiving treatment from a laboratory technologist who was posing as a doctor.
Ngozi Uzorukwu (28), has not been seen since March 3, 2005. According to her uncle, Mr. Chidi Ohakawa, Ngozi was admitted at a clinic in the Iponri area of Lagos and never returned home.
He said: " Ngozi was admitted at S. Adegoke Hospital for three days. Her guardian was surprised when she did not come home after a week. We got the shock of our lives when Doctor Adegoke said that he had discharged Nkechi. We suspected a foul play and reported to the police."
Chidi further said that the family suspected that Nkechi died at the hospital, adding: "All the facts that we have before us are pointing to the fact that our daughter died in the hospital and was buried to cover up the nefarious activities of the doctor. How do you explain the fact that Nkechi did not finish paying her bills and the doctor said that he had discharged her? Also, it was her boyfriend that took her to the hospital, why did the doctor not inform him that he was discharging her."
The case took a new dimension when Nkechi's family alleged that the matter was not treated fairly by the police at Iponri. Chidi said: "We were not satisfied with how the matter was treated at Iponri police station. Immediately the doctor made his statement, he was allowed to go home, while Nkechi's boyfriend, popularly known as Ocha was detained for days. We went to the clinic and we were surprised at what we saw. It was a small bungalow made up of two rooms and very dingy beds. We could not believe that such a substandard hospital was operating under the nose of Iponri police station. We thereafter requested that the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti."
Detectives at Panti swung into action and arrested the doctor and his nurses. It was then we discovered that the doctor was fake. A cop said: " We invited him to explain his own side of the story. It was during his interrogation that we discovered that he was a quack doctor, his nurses were fake and his clinic was not registered. He claimed that the girl had been to Femulus Diagnostic Centre, where she tested positive to typoid fever before he admitted her."
Dr. Adegoke, however, denied all the allegations against him. He said he had discharged Nkechi because she had been his patient for over three years and saw no reason he should not discharge her.
He said: "She came to me on February 26 and complained of body pains and high temperature. I suspected malaria and treated her. She came back the next day and I gave her anti-malaria drugs and injection. On the 28th, her boyfriend brought her on a motorcycle. I directed them to Femulus Diagnostic Centre where she tested positive to typhoid. I admitted her on the same day and discharged her on March 2, after she had promised to pay me the balance of her bill, which was N2,000. The following Saturday, her boyfriend came to the hospital to see her. But I told him that I had discharged her earlier. He explained to me that he travelled to Ghana and could not come earlier. That girl did not die in my hospital. She was hale and hearty when she left my clinic."
Adegoke further said that Ocha knew more than he was telling, saying:" I learnt that Ocha went to Nkechi's house to collect her clothes when she was still on admission. He even asked for her personal diary but her guardian did not give him."
Adegoke confessed to Daily Sun that he was not a medical doctor but was treating people based on the experience he garnered as a laboratory technologist. " It is true that I am not a medical practitioner and my hospital is not registered. I actually read Laboratory Technology at the University of Ibadan. I am a traditional doctor and have treated several people without any problem."
When Daily Sun went to Femulus, the laboratory director, Mr. Dele Olorunmeye disclosed that although Nkechi was at the centre, she came on March 2, not February 28 as claimed by the doctor. He said: " She came here and tested positive to typhoid, but she came in March not February."
The Divisional Police Officer at Iponri was not available for comments. Nkechi's boyfriend was also not at home when Daily Sun went to his Ebute Metta residence. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of police at Panti has promised to get to the root of the matter.