Man loses child in Ogun General Hospital without on-duty doctor, ambulance driver

When Olayemi Lydia Olatunji got pregnant, she chose what she assumed was a safe and secure medical facility to nurture her till birth.
Olatunji’s choice was the General Hospital in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State.
She registered for and went through ante-natal at the hospital until she was due for delivery.
She did several scans with and through the hospital during the ante-natal that confirmed all was well with her and the baby.
On December 17, 2015, she went for what turned out to be the last scan that equally confirmed she and the baby were in good condition and set for delivery.
As soon as she fell into labour on December 18, Olatunji checked into the General Hospital in Ilaro.
However, it was not until 11pm that the staff on duty told her she needed surgery.
But there was a bad news: there was no doctor on duty.
She was then referred to a private hospital in the area, an idea to which her husband, Samson Alani Olatunji, did not object.
With this, also, there was another challenge: The driver of the ambulance in the hospital was not on duty too.
Olatunji and her husband were told to look for a taxi to convey them to the private hospital.
Time then was 12:14am on December 19, 2015.
She had to resort to using a commercial motorcycle, popularly called okada, for the trip to the private hospital.
By the time she got there at about 1:45am, the child inside her was pronounced dead.
Olatunji’s husband said the development was shocking for a General Hospital, which is primarily set to meet emergency needs.
Wikipedia defines a General Hospital as: “The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which is set up to deal with many kinds of disease and injury, and normally has an emergency department to deal with immediate and urgent threats to health.”
Efforts to speak with staff of the hospital on the development did not yield any result as those on duty said they were not authorised to speak with the press.
When asked if he plans to take any action against the hospital, Olatunji’s husband answered in the negative.
He said his only reason for voicing out his pain is to forewarn others who may be planning to use the facility of the Ogun State Government.
He said: “My reason for speaking out is to let people be at alert in case of future ocurrences.”