Peju Ugboma: Hospital put my wife on 'wrong setting of ventilator for 12 hours'

The late Peju Ugboma was on the “wrong setting of the ventilator for 12 hours”, the deceased husband told the coroner, M.K.O. Fadeyi, at the Ogba magistrate court on Monday.

Mrs Ugboma, 41, died on April 23, 2021, after her surgery at a hospital where she had undergone surgery for fibroid but later suffered internal bleeding.

Following her death, her family accused the hospital of unprofessional conduct resulting in her untimely demise.

The Lagos State government through the Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA), shut down the intensive care unit of the hospital in June, pending the outcome of its investigation.

Cross-examination

Ijoma Ugboma, the widower, during cross-examination in the witness dock, said that the hospital (Premier) where his late wife had the “elective surgery”, did not deem it fit to commiserate with him following the death of his wife for three weeks, until the news of her death became viral.

Asked what he made of the comment by one of the medical team, Renner Kingsley, an anaesthetist, during his testimony, that he (Mr Ugboma) should be grateful to the team.

Mr Ugboma said the statement is an “insensitive and unfortunate thing I have heard in my life…. It is a misplaced statement.”

The widower stressed that his wife had no underlying medical ailment before the surgery.

He said that “saying that she had an underlying condition is baseless,” adding that according to the case note, she was on zinc, calcium and vitamin C.

“The surgery was elective, it wasn’t a life-threatening condition, my wife did not crawl into Premier hospital and they opted to do the surgery with the PCV of 28.2,” he said.

Mr Fadeyi adjourned the case to February 24 and 31.

In October, a consultant pathologist, Olugbenga Oyewole, told the coroner that the post-mortem result of the mother of two revealed that she died of massive blood within the abdominal cavity and pelvic floors.

In November, the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MDPCN) had accused three Premier Specialist Hospital doctors, including Mr Kingsley, of unprofessional conduct leading to the death of Peju Ugboma, a Lagos-based chef.