A disturbing case of alleged medical negligence has come to light in Oyo State, Nigeria. Badirat Adebayo, a native of Ipapo community in Itesiwaju local government area of Oyo state, is currently experiencing excruciating pain following three surgeries carried out on her without proper medical tests.
The life of Badirat has not remained the same after the surgeries, which were carried out within a space of one month. Her deteriorating health condition has forced members of her family to seek the intervention of the Federal, state government, and relevant global agencies.
According to westernmirror.com.ng, the owner of the hospital, who is also the doctor in charge, diagnosed Badirat with fibroid without proper medical procedure and subsequently carried out surgery on her three times within a space of one month. According to the family, Badirat was initially taken to the private hospital in Ipapo community after experiencing abdominal pain and weakness.
The family alleged that contrary to the professional procedure in carrying out medical tests with physical evidence as results, they were only told verbally by the said doctor that the outcome of the test conducted on Badrat revealed that she had fibroid and required an urgent surgical operation to remove it as it was already large and could become complicated.
Adebayo’s family also alleged that after Badrat was admitted into the private hospital in Ipapo, they noticed irregularities in the doctor’s behavior. According to the family, they observed that the doctor, whose identity has been withheld was always evasive and reluctant to provide clear answers about the true state of health of Badirat
Badrat’s condition, however, worsened after the doctor in Ipapo performed a surgical procedure claiming to be aimed at removing a fibroid, which the family claimed was neither fully explained nor authorized.
The family contended that after the surgery, their daughter showed signs of significant organ distress, leading them to believe that certain organs, specifically her womb, may have been removed without their consent.
However, medical authorities have neither confirmed that Badrat’s organ was missing nor denied its possibility but assured that a laboratory test such as an ultrasound scan would clarify issues surrounding her state of womb missing or not.
The said doctor, who has since been taken into custody after being arrested by the police is currently being investigated by the Oyo state Police Command.
Narrating their journey from a private hospital in far away Ipapo to Adeoyo General Hospital in Ibadan, Mr Taiwo Adebayo, Badrat’s father, said: “We got to Adeoyo hospital after a doctor operated on my child 3 times and still couldn’t cure the ailment.
“That morning, she was complaining of the stomach, so she went there (the hospital in Ipapo) with her husband, and the doctor told them that she had fibroid and that she would be operated on. The husband told the doctor that he wanted to seek the approval of her mother before the operation.
“When he got to Badrat’s mother, my wife, and told her, the mother asked if they’d met with her father. The mother later came and told me that she suddenly saw her daughter’s husband and he said Badrat’s needed to be operated on.
“When the husband first came to me, I queried why he took his wife to such a place for medical treatment. He said they were told by the doctor to go and do the scan, and I said okay; before we got there (the hospital) to check on her, the doctor was already operating on her. When challenged as to why he was carrying out such an operation without anybody’s consent. The doctor told us life is more important than money.
“After like nine days at the hospital, the wound stitches from the operated spot on her abdomen were already loosening so, he did another operation and after like another nine days, he asked us to go and look for money, promising to give her an injection after which she would only take medicine to heal, but my daughter told her mother that her clothing was getting wet again. Later, before we knew what was happening, he (the doctor) took her into the theater room and operated her for the third time.
“Thereafter, he said we’ll need to buy an injection, which is sold for N9,500 each, and said we should go and look for N200,000, so Badrat’s mother gathered all she had and gave the doctor the sun of ₦100,000; I also gathered the same amount and gave to him. Just a few days later, he told us that the money was already exhausted and we needed to find another N57,000; again, we went round to get it and gave him the money.
“After another nine days, when we were hoping that he would discharge her from the hospital, he hinted that her husband had offended spiritual forces, that we needed to look for some items such as honey, banana, and other materials to appease them; we got them and handed them over to the doctor. He said he had done the needful and assured us that our prayers would be answered.
“Another day, it was in Friday, he opened up to us that he could not comprehend the situation anymore, so, he referred us to another private hospital at Iseyin. After Jumat prayer that day, we headed to the hospital in Iseyin. Upon getting there, they started treating her, but the wound where she was initially operated on kept loosening up; we spent three months at that hospital in Iseyin.
“One of my younger brothers was there with the doctors in Iseyin Hospital because I couldn’t enter their theater room. My brother came back and hinted
that the doctor said my daughter’s womb had been removed. I was marveled because our thoughts were quite different from the new development. A lady that gave birth to just a child? Well, we accepted as told and kept on treating her until we spent about three months there in Iseyin. The doctor in Iseyin Hospital used to ask if the doctor in Ipapo had made efforts to check on us, but we never saw him, and he was not picking up his phone calls.
“Later on, the hospital in Iseyin said we would have to take our child to India, we were like, who did we know in India? Then, we didn’t know what to do again, so we decided to get the Ipapo doctor arrested. After we took him to the police station and the police took his statement, that was how we were advised to come here at Adeoyo General Hospital.” Mr Adebayo said.
Earlier, Badrat’s uncle, Mr. Akeem Olayiwola, told newsmen that since the said doctor in Ipapo started operating on Badrat, neither a document showing evidence of the result of test conducted nor the fibroid claimed to have been removed has been presented to the family, and therefore, urged government and relevant authorities to come to their rescue while insisting that the multiple operations carried out on his niece was a ploy to cover up the damage done to her (Badrat).
Investigation revealed that other similar cases have been recorded by members of the community in Ipapo, leading to the deaths of their loved ones.
Mrs Adesokan Veronica Bimbola, a retired school principal, explained how her 73-year-old husband; a retired school principal lost his life a few days after the same doctor in Ipapo extracted two pants of blood from her late husband on the ground that he had too much blood in his body. This, according to the woman, aggravated her husband’s health status earlier, suspected to be high blood pressure, and eventually led to his death.
Another 30-year-old woman resident in the same Ipapo community, PAUL Monsurat, also narrated how she also lost her mother, who was, until her death, the breadwinner of their family, due to how the same doctor told her family that a surgical operation was required to remove a fibroid inside of her.
The investigation further revealed that these reported incidents happened between July and October 2024.
The Oyo state government, through the Ministry of Health, has, however, shut down the private hospital in Ipapo pending further investigation.
The Oyo State Police Command has confirmed that they are looking into the claims and have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Adebimpe’s hospitalization and subsequent death.
Meanwhile, a medical consultant and orthopedic surgeon at the state general hospital–Adeoyo General Hospital, Ring Road, Ibadan, Doctor ADEOYE Allen Taylor, where Badrat is currently receiving medical attention has assured that the hospital was only waiting for her to be fully optimized for surgery before they begin noting that she was already receiving all the needed medical care.
Providing insight into Badrat’s health condition, the doctor said she was diagnosed with Enterocutaneous Fistula, which is an abnormal connection between the intestine and the skin that allows the intestinal contents, including stool, bacteria, and digestive enzymes, to leak out of the intestine and unto the skin.
“She presented with a diagnosis of Enterocutaneous Fistula which means she was passing fecal matter from a wound in her abdomen. The brief history I know is that she had surgery somewhere, which became complicated then, and the complication is what developed into the Enterocutaneous Fistula. She’s currently being worked up for surgery, but she’s not yet fully optimized for surgery. That’s what is causing the delay in her surgical treatment.
“The only thing I can guarantee is as soon as she’s fit enough she’ll be operated on. One of the tests that was done showed that her protein and serum protein were a bit low, and those things are important in wound healing. No surgeon wants to do surgery that will eventually break down, and the surgeon will have to go back in. Whatever is causing the delay has to do with the fear of her health and she needs to be fully optimized for surgery I know that the doctors taking care of her will be doing everything in their capacity to make sure that she’s fit for surgery so that when she goes in for the surgery everything can be tidy up once and for all and she will not have any reason to come back under the knife, especially concerning this complication that she’s here on admission for.” Dr Adeoye said.
