Bimbola Oyesola
The Chaplain of St Raphael Divine Specialist Hosptal , Ikorodu, Lagos State, Rev Fr Joe- Ben Onyia has debunked story making the rounds that a woman who had a set of twins in the hospital recently had one of the babies stolen by the doctors and nurses who conducted the delivery through Caesarean section, CS. He accused the couple embarking on a campaign of calumny to besmear the image of the hospital, deploying every antics including the police to achieve their nefarious objective.
What is the genesis of this allegation?
Thank you Sir for asking about the story making round on social media that our doctors stole a baby in the theatre after a CS.
Thanks also for your confidence in us that made you ask. Am glad you said that since you and your family have been using this hospital, you know that such a thing is not possible as you know the calibre of doctors who work here.
What machinations have the couple used?
The couple are just carrying unnecessary propaganda. They had since reported us to Force CID Alagbon who have sent plain cloth CIDs to our hospital without our knowing it and subsequently invited us to a few times to Alagbon. The police are done with their investigation.
The couple probably believe they have a clear opportunity to make money from this as they have been sending threatening calls to our Doctors and saying that they will tear our hospital apart through social media just to force out their N250 Million Naira Demand. I wonder whether their interest is in truly recovering their “stolen baby” or getting N250 Million Naira in exchange failing which they went on defamation of the Church’s character. They even allege that the police have been compromised.
It was a case of human error where the sonographer misjudged or misread his scan images and I hope people are not working in concert, hence thought there were set of twins thereby misleading the doctors. We prepared for delivery of twins and sadly it was one baby. The father of the baby was just outside the theatre and was immediately brought into the theatre during the CS to witness the discovery. The allegation that he was sent away was completely false.
They probably have been told that it’s a goldmine for them. And when their request for 250 Million Naira appear not to be forth coming they became upset and began a war of calumny and defamation as they promised. They do not even believe that the AIG of Force CID Alagbon who they reported to and investigating the matter, with all their professionalism, are capable of doing the right thing. Am sure you are aware that Alagbon is not one of those places to mess with.
Are you saying in effect that the entire story which has gone viral on social media was fabricated?
We are really saddened as this is distracting us from the huge battle all hospitals over the world face now with our health care staff putting themselves at risk to save lives.
However the truth is very glaring. Their allegation that our doctors stole their baby is TOTALLY UNFOUNDED. They have also gone about social media probably just because their threat and demand for 250 Million Naira was not adhered to.
NOTE that there were 7 people in the theatre that day for the surgery. The CMD ( Chief Medical Director) later joined them unannounced. So, in all, 3 doctors, 2 nurses, 1 anesthetist, 2 nurse assistants. So these people planned and stole their baby?.
The 3 doctors include our Gynecologist, our Chief Medical Director (who providentially stepped in unannounced in his supervisory role to ensure our protocols are adhered to) and a female Doctor who is a nursing mother.
The CMD is an orthopaedic surgeon and knight of the Church. A deeply religious and profoundly spiritual man. It’s preposterous to imagine that all 8 conspired to steal their baby.
Note that before these scans in our hospital, this woman had gone for scans elsewhere and they PROBABLY told her that she had a single baby. She had later confirmed this to our anesthetist.
When they were asked to produce those scans, they said that it’s lost and besides they do not know where they did the scans. They just refused to cooperate with the police investigation in this regard.
It’s sad that our sonographer made an error and misled highly qualified professionals. One surprising thing we found out was that when this woman came to our hospital for the second scan, the female sonographer told her that she did not have twins. She refused and insisted that the precious male sonographer saw twins. There was a hot argument which ended up in pregnant woman insisting the male sonographer (who was not on duty at the scan room that day) be invited. This same man literally generated a twin result despite the female colleague’s protestations that there were no twins.
How I wish that patients could be truthful. Why did this woman not even mention to our Gynaecologist who saw her severally that there was a very serious objection from our female sonographer to the precious result? The least she could have done was to tell the doctor. This is what we constantly witness with some patients. Lies, Lies, Lies
Again, on the day of delivery our hospital prepared for twins believing she was having twins. Two nurses were detailed to receive twins. We prepared two colts in her room for two babies. Guess what? When the woman and her husband were asked to pay for two delivery packs for the twins, they bluntly refused. The man specifically said that when he sees two babies he will pay for the second pack. Imagine!
To cut the long story short, our doctors must be very bad thieves as not to be smart enough when planning to steal a baby they delivered. They must also be so clueless as to put their licenses at risk just to steal a baby. The story of stolen baby is totally false. Unfortunately, with the help of social media they have done so much damage to our hospital while their lawyer appeared not to have helped to advise them on the implications of making such damaging statements in a matter before the police.
What still remains my biggest shock today is that their own pastor, a very responsible looking man, who they brought the day we had a meeting with them and explained things, quite clearly saw the truth and in the presence of all of us told them that what he was told before coming was not what happened. He admonished them in our presence that it was clearly human error and counselled them not to take the matter further. But invariably, no pastor can make them miss the chance of becoming the millionaire they have been dreaming of.