“We Spent Almost N500,000 At Mortuary”: Man Whose Wife Died During Labour Shares More Details
- More details have continued to emerge after a Nigerian woman died during labour in Lagos state
- The woman’s husband has granted an interview during which he insisted a hospital in Lagos denied his wife treatment
- He also said after his wife died, he and his family spent almost N500,000 to put her in the mortuary
The Nigerian man who lost his wife during labour has released more details concerning what happened.
The man who alleged that a hospital demanded N500,000 from him said his wife died while he was rushing him to the Epe General Hospital.
Akinbobola Akintunde Folajimi said he suspects the hospital he first visited did not have the equipment to care for his wife’s case.
He told Punch Newspapers:
“Two things come to mind when I think about why they rejected us: either they weren’t equipped to handle the situation, or they cared more about money than human lives. If they were truly equipped, the worst that would have happened was that they’d keep my wife and baby in the hospital while I found the money. I would have done everything possible to get it.
“She was still conscious at the hospital. She even signalled to me and said, “The baby is still fine.” She was weak but still communicating. If they had attended to her immediately, she could have been saved. I think the government should ensure that hospitals are properly equipped, and any hospital that isn’t should not be allowed to operate. There should also be a law that mandates all hospitals, private or public, to attend to emergencies.”
But Folajimi said if he had the money to pay the hospital, he believed his wife would have lived.
He lamented that a man like him could not raise ordinary N500,000 to pay for his pregnant wife’s health care.
He told Punch:
“If the economy were better, raising N500,000 wouldn’t have been so difficult. The struggle we went through to get that money was unimaginable. Despite working day and night, I couldn’t even boast of having N200,000 in my account. We were just surviving – earning, paying bills, and moving on. There was no money to save. So, as much as I was working hard and trying my best, I still couldn’t raise N200,000, let alone N500,000. It’s devastating that someone who works hard every day in Nigeria can’t afford N500,000 at the time of death. The economy played a role in the death of my wife and baby.”
But Folajimi said when he got to the mortuary to deposit his wife’s corpse, he spent almost N500,000, the same amount he was allegedly asked to bring at the hospital.
His words:
“They started giving us charges. They said they had to remove the baby from her body, which would cost N150,000. Then we had to buy burial clothes for another N20,000. Before we knew it, we had spent nearly N500,000 at the mortuary. Ironically, this was the same N500,000 that the hospital couldn’t wait for me to raise. In the end, we managed to raise it – just to settle everything at the mortuary.”
Another man loses his wife due to alleged quackery
In a related story reported by Fox Nigeria, a Nigerian man was left in tears after his wife and baby died in a hospital in Owerri, Imo state.
The man alleged that the doctor who attended to his pregnant wife was using YouTube videos to work.
The man’s heartbreaking story has gone viral and met strong condemnation online after it was shared on Instagram.
Source: Fox Nigeria
