MORTUARY attendants at the 44-year-old Bomadi General Hospital, Bomadi in Bomadi Local Government Area, Delta State, stack corpses on improvised wooden platforms after embalmment and bizarrely abandon them to the vagaries of the weather, day and night. The eyesore, according to our investigations, is due to lack of space to preserve the dead bodies in the hospital’s overflowing mortuary.
Meanwhile, patients have expressed disgust at the dilapidated condition of the health-care facility plagued by rats and mosquitoes, which has heightened the fear of Lassa fever and Zika virus in the riverside community. When Niger Delta Voice visited the morgue, our reporters saw embalmed corpses covered with blankets deserted. Efforts to speak with some of the doctors were futile, as none of them agreed to comment on the situation. Workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were under pressure on daily basis because of the challenges faced by patients.
They called on government to resuscitate the hospital, which is the only government healthcare facility in the area. Rats struggle for bread with me—Lawyer A lawyer and human rights activist, E.U Opukiri, whose wife was on admission, narrated his experience: “I am a barrister of nine years in the bar, I came to this hospital because of the health of my wife and my experiences here in these two days are pathetic. There was no electricity and water in the hospital premises, a state government hospital for that matter.
“In the night when the rechargeable lamp we were using went off, rats came out in large numbers and spread everywhere. Some of them came specifically for the bread I bought for my wife, dragging it with me. “Out of fear, I took the bread and made it a pillow at the head-side of the bed. I was, however, uncomfortable with it because of its shape and so I decided to put it in a cupboard-like shelf there. When I opened the shelf, I saw that it was a haven for rats. There were so many rats that I became afraid being aware of the prevalent Lassa fever caused by rats. We could not sleep at night these two days we were there,” he said. Opukiri said: “Again, the hospital morgue too is an eye sore; our revered and deceased parents are dried right outside in the sun like Bonga fish, which is right there (pointing to the morgue).
Therefore, I want government to intervene in this health facility immediately. “As a matter of fact, I can categorically tell you that there is no water in this hospital. All the water facilities are dilapidated, which you can see for yourself. I had to go out of the hospital’s premises in the night to the riverside to fetch water for my wife.” Leader of Bomadi Legislative Assembly, Hon Bekes Tonprebofa, who was a patient in the hospital, last year, complained bitterly about the state of the facilities, appealed to the state government to do the needful in the hospital. Contacted on phone, Commissioner for Health, Delta State, Dr. Nicholas Azinge, said he was not aware of the development and promised to investigate the matter.
Vanguard