Dr Olusola Oyekunle, younger sister of the late cyclist Dr Afolabi Mabogunje who was stabbed in the neck along Ikorodu Road in Lagos, has alleged that her brother might have survived the injuries but for alleged systemic failure at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.
Mabogunje, 58, was waiting for his co-cyclists about 5am on Thursday, September 9, 2021 when hoodlums on a motorcycle robbed him of his phone.
The information technology consultant was first taken to Gbagada General Hospital before being transferred to LASUTH where he underwent a surgery. He went into a coma post-surgery and died on Wednesday, September 15.
Speaking with PUNCH on Saturday, Oyekunle said Mabogunje was stabbed on both sides of the neck, right side of his chest and left arm, adding that on the right side, a gory wound set the internal jugular vein apart from other structures.
She stated, “His wife took him to Gbagada General Hospital at about 5.30am. They sutured the smaller wounds, gave him IVFluids but the hospital did not have a cardiothoracic surgeon on the ground for the neck wound. So he had to be transferred to LASUTH, which had cardiothoracic surgeons. When we got to LASUTH, one of the surgeons was on the ground.
“The surgeon and everyone who would work on him had been alerted. Afolabi (Mabogunje) was put in the emergency room when we got to LASUTH.”
She said her brother’s co-cyclists couldn’t donate blood for Mabogunje because resident doctors were on strike. So the delay of getting blood at Gbagada Hospital amid traffic set in.
Oyekunle, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology, said LASUTH also delayed in running blood test and that the hospital could not provide an ambulance to move Mabogunje to the x-ray section within the facility.
“We finally got into the theatre about 1pm and then there was an outage. We waited for about five minutes before power was restored and it went off again. The surgery eventually started about 1.30pm for a man who sustained injuries at 5am and got to LASUTH at 8am. That was the delay that changed the story. If he had got blood within 30 minutes he got to LASUTH perhaps he would have survived,” she said.
Responding to the allegations, the chief medical director of LASUTH, Dr Adetokunbo Fabamwo said, “I don’t have such information. The contrary is what I have. He was operated on in record time by experts when he was brought in. There were four professors in the theatre where he was operated on. The man was stabbed in several places and he had bled a lot. We have 10 functional ambulances so there is no issue of such. He was operated on within two hours during a period when resident doctors were on strike. His wife was one of us so all hands were on deck.”
