Doctor Charged to Court for Damaging Bladder and Uterus of Pregnant Woman

A senior foreman in the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, Auwal Sani, has accused the management of a private hospital, Giwa Hospital, of damaging the bladder and uterus of his wife, Nadiya, during a caesarean section conducted in the hospital on April 6, 2016.In a letter of complaint titled: ”˜Reproductive right’ dated July 18, 2016 and signed by him, he said the management of the hospital offered him a bribe of N200, 000 and later N1 million when they realised they had damaged the organs.He said, “I took my wife, Nadiya to Giwa Hospital where I am registered with the National Health Insur­ance Scheme (NHIS) on April 5, 2016 when she started experiencing labour for our 7th child. She was unable to deliver on that same day and the doctor duly informed me that she cannot have a normal deliv­ery and that a caesarean op­eration had to be conducted on her.“I heeded the doctor’s ad­vice and signed the consent form. Unfortunately, in the process of the operation, the doctor, one Dr Mohammed C injured my wife’s uterus and without repairing the damage, he sewed he stom­ach up and she was dis­charged on April 11, 2016.”He said seven days af­ter his wife was discharged from the hospital, she start­ed bleeding and he quickly rushed her back to the hos­pital where she went into a coma three times before an emergency operation was conducted on her.“While she was in the theatre, a nurse brought something tied in a leather bag and I was asked to go and bury it. I later learnt that the doctor removed my wife’s womb without her consent or mine and in the process injured her bladder. I am not literate nor can I speak English, so after the operation, they gave me a form which I signed.“The damage to her blad­der resulted in VVF as she now passes urine uncon­trollably. The management of the hospital offered to treat her at the hospital but my wife had lost confidence in the hospital so they re­ferred her to the Gambo Sawaba VVF centre in Kofar Gaya, Zaria for treatment.”He said his wife has been in the Zaria hospital since the incident and he is claim­ing damages of N5 million from the hospital saying, “If they had not damaged her womb during the operation, all these could have been averted.”However, counsel to Giwa Hospital, Joseph Achimugu said, “This matter is sub­ject to litigation in court by Nadiya and Sani before the High Court of justice of Ka­duna State. Since you have a letter from them, please for­ward the letter and we will give you our response.”