An unpleasant scenario is playing out in Ilorin, Kwara State. It is adding ugly experience to our already critical COVID-19 situation.
An unusual victim is falling by the wayside. A professor of Medicine is being consumed as the prey of the avoidable absurdity, the reason it has to be nipped in the bud faster than imagined.
Three weighty accusations were hung on his neck. They were themselves life-threatening. And the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State, did not help matters by using these allegations to nail him.
As grave as the charges appeared, Prof. Kazeem Alakija Salami was never given an opportunity to make a defence before the axe fell.
For a start, Salami is Senior Consultant and Professor of Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, UITH. His research interests are on Infectious and Non-Infectious Pulmonary Diseases. But the events of April 3, 2020, have put a huge spanner in the works for him. He never imagined his innocent actions could cause him so much pain. He is now struggling with every strength in him to save his job.
How did he find himself in the mess? His cousin, Alhaji Muideen Jimoh Obanimomo, returned from the United Kingdom on March 20, 2020. He immediately went to self-isolation.
He was almost through when he fell sick on April 1, the 13th day of his self-isolation. That was how Salami came into the picture. He instantly drove him to UITH for examination. He gave up the ghost later in the day.
And the management of UITH angrily stepped in. It claimed the deceased was a COVID-19 victim. It then rolled out its three charges:
That Salami brought a suspected COVID-19 patient to the UITH; that he concealed the deceased’s travel history; and that he smuggled the corpse out of the hospital for burial in Offa.
By no means these are very severe.
Salami was suspended forthwith. David Odaibo, UITH director of administration, said: “This is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected COVID-19 patient who died in the hospital on April 3, 2020.”
It snowballed into one big controversy, raising dust and throwing up issues, concerns and questions, all begging for urgent attention. None has surfaced yet.
Salami is pained to the marrow for being misunderstood. He insisted none of the three assertions happened. He desperately wants UITH to hear him out. He is not arrogant about it. He merely seeks justice, fairness and equity.
He is convinced none of the allegations can stand when confronted. He believes they will collapse in the face of his strong evidence and superior argument. He went to work and meticulously prepared his defence. He earnestly urged the UITH management to kindly have a rethink: “I am in serious pain to narrate and explain the events of April 1, 2020, to save the life of my cousin, Muideen Jimoh Obanimomo, who I brought to the hospital but eventually died on the same day.
“The allegations and conclusions that I acted unethically in the management of the patient, who incidentally was also my cousin, by bringing him to the hospital without disclosing his COVID-19 status and travel history is not true. Indeed, it is traumatic that nobody cared to ask for my narratives before the decision to suspend me was reached.
“From the available medical facts, my interactions and observation of the patient, there is nothing to justify that I brought a suspected COVID-19 patient to the hospital on April 1, 2020.
“My assessment of him led me to the conclusion that he needed to be taken to a medical facility, hence my decision that he should be taken to the UITH for attention.”
Salami personally drove his patient-cousin in his car to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) ward, UITH, around past 9pm. What happened thereafter?
He responded: “I told them (the doctors) the patient was my cousin and that he returned from the United Kingdom 13 days earlier and that he had been in self-isolation. I instructed them to stay at a distance to take his history. The disclosure of his travel history was documented in his case note and this can be verified from the attending doctors.
“The patient gave all the history by himself to the attending doctors while I filled in the gaps with what I knew about his medical history, particularly that he was hypertensive and on Lisinopril, prazosin combined with hydrochlorothiazide.
“While I was with them, I allowed the physicians to do their work. I only augmented what they were doing.”
When Obanimomo was examined, he was neither febrile (37.2°C), nor dehydrated and was not pale. Salami: “However, his condition suddenly changed for the worse while being examined. He suddenly became drowsy, restless and tremulous on the right fingers. There were no enlarged organs in his abdomen. He was assessed to have had food poisoning.
“Few minutes later, he vomited, possibly aspirated and had cardiac arrest. I spontaneously started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him. I was joined by the medical team on gloves and face masks. The nurse that assisted us also had face mask, gloves and gown on.”
Anaesthetists were immediately called in and the patient was intubated. That must have come a little too late. Prof’s narratives confirmed: “Then he was observed to be bleeding from the oropharynx. He was certified dead at about 10:50pm. He was packed and deposited in the UITH morgue around 12 midnight.”
Salami then began another ordeal. The onus fell on him to bring his cousin home (Offa) for burial, according to Islamic rites. To get the corpse released, he paid the mandatory N3,300 to the hospital mortuary: “I paid the said amount at the hospital central pay point and receipts evidencing payment were kept in the deceased’s folder.
“At the hospital gate, the release paper from the morgue was presented to the security by the ambulance driver and after due verification we were allowed to leave the UITH premises.
“I wish to emphasise that, up to the time of taking the corpse out of the hospital, no clinical facts existed to justify any claim or insinuation that the deceased was a COVID-19 patient.”
At what point then did Obanimomo become a COVID-19 victim? Salami’s argument: “I wish to state that, from the time I notified the state COVID-19 team and the time the patient was buried, no instruction was given to me or to anybody else to the effect that the body should not be buried.”
Perhaps, the turning point. He, however, graciously admitted his error. He inadvertently carried the deceased’s folder with him to Offa. He immediately tendered his unreserved apology and explained himself:
“It was my confused frame of mind arising from the sudden demise of my cousin that threw me overboard.” It was expected.
Salami could not return the file until April 6, 2020. He and his cousin’s wife were advised to self-isolate until results of their blood samples taken would be made known.
He swore: “And while the folder was with me I did not write or alter anything written by the attending doctors.”
His passionate conclusion:“I wish to re-emphasise that I acted throughout the material period in good faith. For instance, I got in contact with the Kwara State COVID-19 Technical Committee before proceeding to Offa for the deceased’s burial.”
He prayed fervently: “It is my prayer therefore that you disregard all insinuations that I brought a suspected COVID-19 patient to the UITH or that I did not disclose his travel history or that I smuggled the corpse out of the hospital.”
This vibrant brain must not be rendered redundant in its active form. He has pleaded. The concerned authorities need to take a thoughtful look at his submission.
He deserves to be heard. If for anything else, to err is human, to forgive is divine.