From Tom Garba, Yola
How the kidneys of a native of Jaule village in Fufore Loal Government area of Adamawa state “disappeared” from his body after a visit to at the Jimeta Clinic and Maternity is a mystery that the state ministry of health has been invited to unravel by both the victim and his relations.
According to the elder brother of the victim Mallam Umaru Isa Yahaya, his junior brother, Isa Hamma, presented himself at the Jimeta Clinic for an ailment. The medical officer who saw him, Dr. Yakubu Hassan, diagnosed the Hamman, prescribed some drugs for him and discharged the victim with an instruction to come back after three days for a follow-up.
Yahaya said when they went back for the follow-up on the appointed date, “the doctor handling the case at the clinic, Dr. Yakubu Hassan, after clinic observation told us that the ailment required surgical operation and that we should pay N50,000, which we mobilized and the surgery was carried out.”.
However, after the surgery Hamma could not urinate and his body became swollen.”
“On seeing the condition of the patient he (the doctor) referred us to the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, saying that the case was beyond his limit,” Yahaya said.
Yahaya added that at the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, the medical personnel said “Hamma’s kidneys were removed during surgical nephrectomy at the Jimeta Clinic. They said he can only survive if another kidney was transplanted on him. In the alternative, he will have to depend on hemodialysis for the rest of his life. He was referred them to Federal Medical Centre Yola on account of its proximity”.
Yahaya stated that the family now spends at N40,000 weekly for Hamma’s dialysis at the Federal Medical Centre Yola and solicited assistance from public-spirited individuals to enable his brother continue surviving on dialysis.
But when contacted on the issue, Dr. Hassan confirmed that he operated on Hamma for an ailment that has nothing to do with kidneys.
He said based on the nature of the case he referred Hamma to a consultant at the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe.
“I did not carry out surgical nephrectomy on him because I am not qualified to do that and I have never carried out such operation,” Dr. Hassan insisted.
But the Federal Medical Centre Gombe, in a letter with reference number: FTHG/MED/DP/216 dated August 2, 2016 and signed by Dr. Abubakar M.S sent to the Consultant Nephrologist, Federal Medical Centre Yola, stated that Hamma was “presented to our facility a week ago with 19 days history of Anuria following a surgical nephrectomy at Jimeta Clinic Yola on 8th July 2016. He was presented with abdominal pain and horse shoe shaped kidney which has rendered the patient with no kidneys and now dependent on hemodialysis for survival”.
The letter urged the Adamawa state Commissioner Ministry of Health through the Director Medical services to launch a probe into “this gross malpractice/misconduct for…disciplinary action”.
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