Nigerian writer, Fiyaso Soyombo took to his verified Twitter page to share the ordeal of two Nigerian women in Europe. According to reports, a Belgian hospital has erroneously destroyed the uterus of a Nigerian woman during a fibroid removal procedure.
The Nigerian woman named Ajima was rendered medically barren after an erroneous amputation of her cervix during the fibroid removal operation by the AZ Sint Jan hospital in Belgium. The tragedy did not only stop there as Ajima who wishes to have a baby, convinced her sister-in-law, Susan Ogbola to be her surrogate mother, of which she obliged.
The sister inlaw was render paralyzed after childbirth in the same Belgian hospital and there seems to be a cover-up by the hospital and the Belgian authorities.
Read Fisayo’s report below:
Y/day was one of my worst in recent times. Headache. Fever. General weakness. Restlessness. But I wasn’t ill. Two Nigerians have their lives permanently damaged by a Belgian hospital. The painful part is Belgium is getting away with it.
A straightforward surgery @azsintjan Hospital to remove fibroid from Ajima Ogbole’s uterus ended up in the ‘erroneous’ amputation of her cervix. The hospital didn’t want to admit this error — not until it was game over.
Complications from this surgery meant Ajima had to entirely give up her uterus, never to be able to carry a baby inside her again. Still willing to have a baby almost as naturally possible, Ajima managed to convince her sister-in-law Susan Ogbole to serve as her surrogate.
When it was time for Susan to birth the baby she’d carried for Ajima, the Belgian doctors advised her to go for epidural delivery, which she didn’t want. She’d preferred a caesarean and general anaesthesia. She reluctantly listened to the doctors’ advice of an epidural.
She successfully put to bed but couldn’t stand unaided afterwards. She had become paralysed. @azsintjan Hospital blamed this on an ‘African bacteria’, but subsequent tests and expert advice overruled that possibility.
To worsen it all, family wanted to travel to Belgium to give Susan proper support but they were denied visas. Her husband only got a one one-month visa that the Belgian interior ministry descried as a “favour”.
There is a general coldness in how the hospital and the Belgian authorities have gone about this. No human is immune to error but there can be no excuses for a lack of post-error penitence and willingness to make it up to the victim.
It’s not just the damage to Ajima and Susan but the audacity — that do-your-worst attitude. Despite all the hurt she has suffered, Ajima only has three demands:
i. An apology from the hospital ii. An acceptance of full responsibility for the fatal results of the treatments iii. And an overhaul of the Belgian health system to protect patients.
The treatment of Ajima and Susan by Belgium should interest the @NigeriaMFA and @nidcom_gov No human deserves to be treated this way, even if they’re Nigerians based in faraway Belgium.
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