Boy attacked by dogs got infections at LASUTH –Indian hospital

Available information has shown that four-year-old Abraham Omonigho,
who was attacked by two German shepherd dogs in Igando area of Lagos
State, in September 2014, was infected while at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
This was said by the medical personnel at the Apollo Hospitals,
Hyderabad, an Indian medical facility in Telegana State, where
Omonigho was flown to late November, 2014, after his father, Odia,
took him out of LASUTH.
After spending about two months at the Apollo Hospitals, Omonigho
returned to Nigeria on Thursday. The treatment of the undisclosed
infection was said to have lasted over one month.
Omonigho's scalp had been covered up by the doctors but Odia said his
son would return to India in June 2015, for a micro surgery.
Firstclass Newsline learnt this on Friday during a visit to the
Abrahams in their Akesan Estate residence in Igando area of Lagos.
Our correspondent had reported that Omonigho was riding a bicycle with
his brothers-Bobby and Osemidiamen-when they were attacked by the two
dogs owned by their landlord.
Firstclass Newsline had reported that while the older brothers jumped
down from the balcony of their one storey apartment, the victim was
ravaged by the dogs, which tore his scalp.
Neighbours and policemen were reported to have stood at the gate,
helpless, until the victim's mother arrived at the scene.
Our correspondent reported that the crowd persuaded her not to go in,
but she was spurred to move in after seeing one of the dogs emerge
from the balcony with blood in its mouth.
Helen reportedly fought off the dogs singlehandedly and rescued her
son while the crowd assisted in taking him to the hospital.
The victim was taken to LASUTH and the State Governor, Babatunde
Fashola, ordered the management not to collect money from the family.
However, the victim's father, Odia, had a running battle with the
hospital management, which he said still charged him for drugs and
other medications.
Odia later raised the alarm that his son's condition had worsened as a
result of neglect by the hospital.
The Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, intervened and together
with a non-governmental organisation, Global Initiative for Peace,
Love and Care, a trip to India was arranged for Omonigho to undergo a
surgery.
Abraham Omonigho, at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
The Lagos State Commissioner, Jide Idris, in a press release cautioned
against the trip, saying the victim's condition was delicate.
Idris alleged that the victim's father declined the state government's
offer for Omonigho to be flown to another specialist hospital in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Odia, however, insisted that his son's head had started to rot and
that the Indian trip had been concluded before the state government
gave him the Dubai offer.
Odia said the Indian doctors thrashed the medical report LASUTH issued
to them, which he said was termed as "mere paper."
He said, "They said the report did not give them any information and
couldn't have been written by a doctor. They said it was good I
quickly brought my son because his head was getting rotten and had
been infected while at the hospital. The doctors told me they could
not start with the surgery because they had to treat the infections
first.
"You remember I cried out that my son's head smelled, but the LASUTH
people said it was granulation. I had always suspected things were
wrong because at LASUTH, the nurses would open his head for dressing
at 6am and leave it open for the doctors, who would not show up till
12pm. And when they did, they would ask the nurses to close it up. I
remembered that no doctor showed up for two weeks during a particular
time. That was when I got mad because his condition was becoming
critical.
"But in India, they dressed his wound three times a day, and at least
five special senior doctors attended to him every day."
Our correspondent was shown a medical document of the hospital which
confirmed that Omonigho's head was infected.
It read, "At the time of admission, there was: large raw area over
scalp with infection; the raw area was extending from frontal scalp,
bilateral parietal scalp to occipital region; the raw area was looking
pale and slimy; Infection+.
"Dr. Durga Prassad, consultant paediatrician, was consulted for
evaluation of medical problems. He (Omonigho) was diagnosed as a case
of infected raw area over scalp."
Odia said the doctors told the family they needed to do skin grafting
to temporarily cover up the wound before the major operation would be
done after his return to India in June.
Firstclassnewsline.net

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