A pregnant woman and her unborn child have died after the doctor who was due to attend to her allegedly held by policemen enforcing the COVID-19 curfew on the Airport Road, Ikeja, Lagos State.
The surgeon, a female doctor, was held for about one hour, despite pleas that she was on an emergency call to attend to a patient in the hospital.
The doctor was on her way to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba, Surulere, when she was stopped by the police officers on 31 August, according to the Punch.
The patient, it was learnt, was initially admitted to a private facility, where attempts were made to deliver her of the baby.
When the case got complicated after it was discovered that she was suffering internal bleeding, the pregnant woman was referred to LUTH.
However, after the doctor was released by the policemen, she got to the hospital and discovered that both mother, identified only as Mistura, and the unborn baby had died.
A witness told the newspaper that the doctor cried upon learning of the death of the pregnant woman and her unborn child.
The source said: “The doctor is a woman. In fact, she was also ill and was placed on a drip at home when she was called about the emergency.
“Because her car was bad, she got a cabman to take her to the hospital. She left her house around past 9pm.
“Around 10.15pm, they got to the under bridge around Airport Road, where they met the policemen. They had been stopped by other policemen before they got to that spot. But when she showed them her ID card, they allowed her to pass.
“But these ones refused. After she showed one of them her ID card and said she was on an emergency to see a patient who was between life and death, the policeman ordered the driver to park. He took her ID card and asked her to prove she was on an emergency.
“She went to meet another member of the team and begged him that she needed to leave immediately, and that the life of her patient was at risk. She was in a nightgown; she could not even change when she got the call. But the second policeman shunned her.
“The policeman said she was foolish and she was a prostitute, because a doctor would never dress the way she was dressed. She begged them and explained the circumstances, but they refused to listen and demanded the emergency letter.
“There were four policemen on duty that night. Only one was on mufti. Their tag was not visible because they wore overall. They saw the drip in the doctor’s hand; she was risking her life to save another person, but they never allowed her.”
The source said efforts by the doctor to call a phone number on the policemen’s van – 09051614394- proved abortive.
Prior to its revision to 12 midnight last Thursday, the police enforced a nationwide curfew from 10pm till 4am.
However, medical workers, journalists and other essential service providers are exempted from the curfew.
Discussion about this post