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The Spanish hospital where Mrs. Stella Obasanjo was operated before she developed complications that led to her death on Sunday, Molding Clinic, has denied responsibility for the death of the First Lady.
The Spanish hospital where Mrs. Stella Obasanjo was operated before she developed complications that led to her death on Sunday, Molding Clinic, has denied responsibility for the death of the First Lady.
The denial was contained in the report the hospital submitted to the panel set up by the Spanish government to probe the cause of Mrs. Obasanjo's death.
The hospital, according to the report, said that Mrs. Obasanjo 'did not die in the course of the practised operation of the clinic," adding that it does 'not know the fundamental causes of the death."
According to a report on Tuesday in a Spanish national newspaper, El Pais, the hospital, which charges about 6,000 Euros (N1.08m) for abdominoplasty, popularly called tummy tuck, said that it had submitted all it knew about the case to the judicial panel probing Mrs. Obasanjo's death.
A Director of Molding, Dr. Nacirda Emilia, told our correspondent in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the hospital was not prepared for any comment but was awaiting the outcome of the panel's investigation.
Emilia, who spoke with our correspondent for about eight minutes on Tuesday afternoon, said that he was not prepared to discuss any issue about the death of the First Lady.
Part of the interview that was conducted at 1.52pm went thus:
We need to get your comments on the death of Mrs. Stella Obasanjo
I can't talk about that for now. All we are doing here is to wait for the report of the enquiry.
But it is just to find out if the hospital itself feels convinced that there was no problem that could have led to her death during the operation…
Yes, I understand that. But I am sorry we can't talk about that issue because the government has said the incident should be probed and we are waiting for the outcome of that.
There are reports that a case of malpractice had been established against your hospital…
I am sorry, but we are still waiting for the outcome of the probe. I must say that I am sure that before the end of the week, the report will be out. May be then we will have something to say. But even if we have anything to say, we will say it to the Embassy (Nigerian Embassy in Spain), because they are the ones we are dealing with on this matter.
Do you know the exact date to expect the report?
No, I don't. Just that I am sure that before the end of the week it will be out.
Your hospital has been in practice for so long and must have done so many of such operations…
Yes. There is no doubt about that. But I cannot comment on the issue at a time like this. Sorry I can't be of help to you. Let us just wait for the outcome of the probe report."
Information available showed that a ban had been placed on comments on the death of the First Lady.
Reports have it that a Court of Instruction Number 2 of Marbella had decreed information on the issue 'secret."
The enquiry is to determine the culpability of Molding Clinic, whose clients are mainly foreigners, in the death of Mrs. Obasanjo. The clinic was inaugurated in 2002.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Society of Plastic Surgery and Estetica with the acronym SECPRE, also does not believe that the death of the First Lady, who underwent surgery for 'reducing of fat in her body," was as a result of negligence on the part of the hospital.
According to the President of SECPRE, Jose Manuel Perez Macias, the doctor that led the team that operated Mrs. Obasanjo was 'a titled surgeon."
Macias, according to El Pais, said that the doctors at the hospital told him that they were even extra cautious with the operation on Mrs. Obasanjo 'for being the wife of a president."
The president of SECPRE described the operation on the First Lady as a routine one.
The First Lady, according to reports, was pronounced clinically dead at 2.35am on Sunday at the Marbella High Care Clinic after complications that allegedly arose as a result of the operation.
The Director, Legal Medicine Institute, Malaga, Antonio Garci'a de Galvez, however, gave hope that the cause of the death of the First Lady would be revealed by the autopsy conducted on the corpse.
Galvez described the autopsy as 'enlightening."
The PUNCH, Wednesday, October 26, 2005