The Chair, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) Professor Mala Sandabe spoke exclusively with metrowatchxtra.com on several critical issues and the travails affecting the facility, including a lady stabbed at the home of an NGO worker, since the year started. Below are the excerpts of the interview as conducted by Sam Kayode.
How did you end up at a wrong name for the lady suspected to have been stabbed in the home of a staff of a non-governmental organization?
What was important to the Police was the name on the death certificate. That it was not the correct name. So when the autopsy was done, the name of the death certificate came out, the relations came to refute the name. But they agreed that the corpse was theirs. There is one funny name that her friends called her and this was what was put there. It was like an alias. But the parents insisted on the use of her real name before accepting her corpse. So we changed it to her real name. Sometimes even medical certificates of deaths can be changed. You know what we do? The next of Kin will apply for a change of name on the death certificate because the name captured was not the name of what is used at the place of work. So we present such to our legal office. And these are things they can do. The next of Kin will then have to go to a High Court and swear an affidavit and they will do all the formalities for a change of name on the matter. This is because of the mistakes made. You see most of the times when people bring patients to the hospital, they hardly know the real name of the patient except aliases. Example if someone is called A. A. JEATS everywhere, that is the name, they know so when such a person is ill and brought before us, that is the name that is usually presented. Doctors will only write what the caregiver tells them on the matter. The person that is bringing the patient, whatever he tells you that is perfect for us. But you know, that person may not be the real relation, parents not anything. So when the real parent would come later on to give us the real name. What do you do? At that point, you know that they have already identified their daughter so what is left is just legal formalities so you change the name. Incidentally, they had already taken the corpse but we asked them to return same even after they had washed it ready for burial.
Is it true they stole the corpse of the lady from your hospital in the first instance?
No! they did not steal the corpse. We have a process for the release of corpses from the hospital. Once a relation’s corpse has been taken to the mortuary. And they have settled all their hospital bills. We will release the corpse to them. Except if there is a police case which will allow the police to keep that corpse. Then the death certificate would be kept by the Police. It would not be released to the family until everything is over. The Police will then release the death certificate to the family. They never stole the corpse. It’s just that people are used to rumours. It was mere rumours not true. In fact, when the corpse was still in the trauma centre the police left the hospital and went to their station. They never took the corpse. And so, it was only the ambulance driver, relations and one of our porters that took the corpse to the mortuary. Normally if it’s a police case, they would accompany the corpse to the mortuary and inform the mortuary attendant that this case is under investigation. So even when we retrieved the corpse and the autopsy was concluded and the relations wanted to take the corpse, we said no, not until the Police officer came. They came and we agreed that the corpse should be released. That was how it went. How can someone steal corpse from here? It can never happen.
So the young lady has been buried?
Yes she has. The autopsy was done in the presence of the Police and relation. So the police can never say that wasn’t the corpse brought to us. Incidentally when they brought the corpse the relations took the body home. And the same relations brought back the corpse. The Police and relation agreed that that was the corpse of the lady so it was easy. The next step was to ask the relations what was the name. And change the name on the documents. But for those types of cases we used to ask them to go swear affidavit. It’s only on the reflection on the death certificate. And by that time the corpse had been buried long ago for such cases. Some used to come after two or three years to enable them claim the benefits of the patient or dead person. The death certificate then becomes a confidential document for the patient used for many things. No one can steal our bodies.
We have a register in the mortuary where all of these corpses entering or leaving are registered. The same applies to our trauma centre. We register all the patient that come in and go out.
You had a working relationship with the Army Chief General Farouk Yahaya when he was the Theatre Commander over the medical care of the Army. How sustainable has it been?
Yes we still have that. He did visit here when he was appointed the Army Chief. He came to see some of his wounded soldiers. So he met me on ground and I took him round the facility then. He actually distributed more than N10m to his wounded troops as palliatives. This is regardless of the fact that their bills are being catered for by Defence insurance. Sometimes it’s the division that pays for their bills. So we are fine with them.
On the number of wounded soldiers that have undergone prosthetics…
We had three military representatives who have a list of all their military personnel admitted unto this facility. Their names, service members, etc. Now they are two based here with us. One is a mortician, another is of the military records. They have a list of all their personnel who have come in or out of this facility. Even anything small their people need they take care of it. Even if it’s a particular drug absent absent in our pharmacy, they will go out to look for it.
On Committee set up by govt to investigate the case of a student whose throat was slashed by another.
Most of their work was outside the hospital. it was a high powered committee meant to investigate why the throat of the boy was slashed with a blade. They did most of their work in the school where the boy was wounded. But they said their work would not be complete without coming to the hospital. They wanted to know How he was brought here? Treatment? They asked if the patent was fit enough to be seen or not. We allowed them to see the patient. It was his throat that was cut. And the operation was done by the Eye Nose and Throat department. You can see the wind pipe of the boy from out side. The boy was admitted on January 15th and left February 3.
We were not willing to keep him more than expected. Normally when a school takes a child to the hospital it’s the school that would pay the bill. The Commissioner of Education came because that sad incident happened in the public school under his management.
