The Garki General Hospital, Abuja has denied allegation it refused National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Linda Igwetu, treatment after being shot by a police officer.
According to information shared on social media, Miss Igwetu bled to death because the hospital insisted on a police report before attending to her.
Another account said the hospital demanded N50,000 before treating Miss Igwetu.
A statement signed by the hospital’s Medical Director, Essen Nyomudim, however, described the allegations as false and malicious.
“The purported complicity of Garki Hospital Abuja in denying Miss Igwetu treatment and allowing her to bleed to death while asking for a police report is false and malicious.
“Garki Hospital Abuja does not demand Police report before attending to Trauma Patients at her Accident and Emergency department.
“Garki Hospital does not insist on payment before stabilising trauma patients. It is a tradition that we do not compromise,” the statement said.
Giving the hospital’s account of the sad incident, the statement said “Miss Igwetu was brought to our hospital at about 3.05 a.m. on July 4 in a very precarious condition. The doctors on duty at the Accident and Emergency including the consultant surgeon on call battled to save her life by providing care including blood transfusions and limited surgery.
“This was done even before any form of payment could be made. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to save her life, she did not make it.”
The hospital also demanded the immediate rebuttal of all reports of allegations that the hospital denied the deceased treatment from all mainstream and social media.
It further demanded a published apology within 48 hours from media platforms that published the allegations.
“Failure to publish the required rebuttals and apology would compel Garki Hospital to take legal actions against such media houses and blogs including their promoters.
“We also encourage the media to always take a step further by confirming the information they are fed with before broadcasting it to the general public,” the statement said.
Garki Hospital also sympathised with the family of the deceased, the NYSC and Nigeria as a whole on the loss of Ms Igwetu and reassured all Nigerians of the hospital’s commitment to saving lives.
The hospital declined to state the cause of death, saying this can only be determined by a post-mortem examination.
