A 53 year old Teacher, and proprietor of a private Academy, in Umuahia, Abia state capital, Mr Olalekan Saliu has decried how surgeons from the Federal Medical Center, FMC, Umuahia have turned him into a widower overnight by slaughtering his 39 year old wife Isabella in the name of fibroid operation.
By Chuks Isaiah (All Facts Newspaper -Editor)
A 53 year old Teacher, and proprietor of a private Academy, in Umuahia, Abia state capital, Mr Olalekan Saliu has decried how surgeons from the Federal Medical Center, FMC, Umuahia have turned him into a widower overnight by slaughtering his 39 year old wife Isabella in the name of fibroid operation.
The grief-stricken teacher, who wept bitterly as he narrated his ordeal to All Facts newspaper Editor in Chief Chuks Isaiah, said he wouldn’t have bothered much, if the surgeons had done their best and the hands of death overwhelmed them and took his wife.
He explained, as he cried uncontrollably like a baby, that the surgeons abandoned his wife in their slab and fled after they had butchered her with their knives and she started bleeding profusely uncontrollably. This is Salu’s story as was narrated by him to All Facts in his office.
“My wife, Mrs Isabella Olalekan Saliu 40 years had fibroid, which we had been managing for some time with drugs. But at a point because of our desire to have children, we felt it was important for us to look for a lasting solution. And when we approached the Doctors at the Federal Medical Center FMC, Umuahia, they told us that there is no other remedy for it other than surgical operation.
We believed that Federal Medical Center, FMC, Umuahia, as the experts they are will offer us a lasting solution, hence , we went there. We also believed that because they have many Doctors and Consultants, they will be able to offer us solution to the problem. With my support, my wife went to FMC.
She went through many tests, as pre-requisite to the surgery. The tests lasted for weeks, and because she was in good health, she had to endure all the tests that were conducted here and there. She was going, and coming until they fixed the date for surgery, which was Thursday, June 3rd 2021.
We came on that day and she entered theater for the surgery. She entered theater around 9 a.m. in the morning. The surgery took a very long time because they came out around 6.30 pm in the evening. They told us that the reasons for the number of hours she spent as due to bleeding, that she was bleeding uncontrollably after the surgery. However, she came out alive. The on Friday, June 4th, I was in the hospital till night, she was also alive and we were talking, but they were still transfusing her with blood. They said that the bleeding had not stopped totally, and about nine pints of blood were transfused into her, and upon everything that was being done, she kept bleeding. Despite everything she still died.
But the most painful aspect of it is that that Friday night when the situation was getting worse, the nurse on duty went to call the Doctor who performed the surgery, and the Doctor refused to come. I was told that the Doctor told her that he was coming and never came until my wife gave up the ghost. Even the elder sister to my wife, who slept over that night, when she saw where the matter was heading to she also rushed to call the Doctor, but he refused to come until my wife bled to death, and gave up the ghost.
A young woman who came into the hospital with her legs, hale and hearty, was butchered, and allowed to bleed to death, while the Doctors, who were suppose to be around went to the comforts of their homes and slept while my my wife who needed the care that we were to pay for was abandoned to die. They fled the hospital and my wife died, that is exactly what is making me to cry, that if I had known that there are evil Doctors in FMC, who don’t value human life, I couldn’t have gone to that place, I could have still been managing the fibroid with drugs instead of taking my wife to a people that slaughtered her and allowed her to bleed to death.
My wife would have still been alive today if I had gone to another place, because I know that fibroid surgery is done in many other places successfully. If they had cared, my wife wouldn’t have died, she died out of negligence, and I cannot take it from them.
That woman is the only person I have in these who world, I don’t have any other person, I am a Yoruba man, and a teacher here in Abia, and I am on clutches as a result of an accident I had some time ago, that woman is my hands and legs. Out of negligence, they killed my wife, I will not take it, I will stop at nothing to get justice for the slaughtering of my wife”, Olalekan lamented.
He lamented further that the death of his wife has thrown him into confusion . Today, I don’t know where to start from. I wished I had died instead of the woman I love so dearly, , I am crying out, if they want to kill me , let them come and kill me, after all what else am I doing in the world now. If I set my eyes on the Doctor that slaughtered my wife, I will ensure that he pays with his own life. The corpse is still lying there at the FMC mortuary. . I have written to FMC authorities and up till now, I have not received any reply, but I will stop at nothing to make sure that I get justice. They will not put me into this condition, just like that, it is better that they cone and kill me so that I will join my wife, Olalekan cried.
All Facts Investigation revealed that Mrs Isabella Olalekan Saliu was a serving Inspector of police, attached to Police Headquarters, Bende Road Umuahia. It was learnt that they have been married for about six years, and all her wish has been to have a baby for Olalekan who it was learnt loved her without measure. According to our investigation, it was for that reason that she decided to go for surgery to remove the fibroid to enable her conceive and have baby for th love of her life.
The marriage was an inter-tribal marriage that defied culture and tradition to thrive between the sweet couple. She was from Ikeduru LGA in Imo state while Olalekan Saliu is from Oriadun LGA of Osun State. Theirs was a love made in heaven and practiced on earth.
“I want justice to be done , because no amount of money paid to me will bring her back because I don’t know where to start now, I am just like an empty container, I have been staying at home alone, and I know that if I continue like that, I may die one day at home, that is why I try to come out daily to mix and talk with people. Whenever I am alone, it seems to me as if she is there with me, but each time I come back to myself, I face the reality that my wife had actually died”, Olalekan said.
In a letter he wrote the Chief Medical Director, Doctor Azubuike K. Onyebuchi, through the CMA’s office, titled LETTER OF COMPLAINT, which was received on June 15, 2021, the widower, narrated how his wife who walked into the hospital hale and hearty was butchered and abandoned to bleed to death by some yet to be identified surgeons of the FMC, Umuahia. He said that they had believed that the hospital had medical remedy for fibroid as they both believed that FMC could offer the best in surgery.
“She went through series of tests, which lasted many weeks as prerequisite for the operation and throughout the period, she was strong and healthy. On Thursday, 3rd June, she was taken to the theater for the surgery around 9 am to be precise and was brought out of the theater around 6.30pm. It was revealed that the number of hours spent during the surgery was due to internal bleeding. On Friday 4th June, the Doctors could not control the bleeding consequent upon which she was transfused with 9 pint of blood, all to no avail. When her condition worse that night, the nurse on duty raised the alarm and made frantic efforts to call the Doctor to attend to her, but the Doctor refused to come at that critical moment. Even my wife’s sister, Mrs Nwigwe Dorathy in her confused state went to call the Doctor, who kept saying that he was coming but never showed up until my wife finally gave up the ghost. She died out of negligence”, he wrote.
When contacted on the matter, the Chief Medical Director, Doctor Azubuike said he had not been briefed on the matter. This reporter gave him some of the details he had and he promised to investigate and call back.
The following day, when this reporter called him back, he explained that he had been briefed and that two consulting surgeons did the surgery and that they would be coming to his office the following week to brief him and that he would invite the reporter during discussion. When he was called again on the matter, he said that he was yet to meet with the surgeons. Up to the time of going to the press, All Facts Newspaper is yet to hear from the hospital management. END
