Doctors' strike claims fire victim at UBTH

Saraki market. Ilorin

FILE PHOTO:Saraki market. Ilorin

FILE PHOTO: Sabon Gari Market in Kano on fire
FILE PHOTO: Sabon Gari Market in Kano on fire
Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The ongoing nationwide strike by resident doctors has claimed the life of a fire victim, Mrs. Margaret Edobor, at the accident and emergency ward of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

The victim, a 65-year-old mother of seven, was said to have died on Tuesday at about 2.30 pm, from an infection she contracted following a fire accident.

‎She was admitted at the hospital a month ago, but had her treatment suspended, following the strike embarked on by resident doctors on Monday.

Elder brother of the deceased, Mr. Sunday Ogbewe, who confirmed her death, explained ‎that his late sister was responding to treatment before she died.

“She suffered burns from a fire accident and she was admitted here at UBTH. When the strike started, there was no doctor, so, she contracted an infection”‎, Ogbewe said, adding that pleadings by the family of the victim to doctors at the hospital to attend to her proved abortive as they insisted that they were on strike.

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“It is very painful. I have been crying . She is gone. When it happened, I even called some doctors to attend to her. But they said no.

“They (doctors) should have human feeling. Not all doctors are pagans,” he said.

The doctors’ action has grounded major services in the hospital, prompting‎ relatives of in-patients to call on the doctors to call of the strike in the interest of humanity.

Meanwhile, the President of Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, UBTH chapter, Dr. Owen Omorogbe, has said that the decision of the doctors ‎to embark on the strike, was a national directive in protest over non-payment of some of their financial entitlements.

He said the strike was painful and appealed for understanding by the public.

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