Lam was discharged from UCH on request – CMD

The management of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, on Wednesday, denied reports that the hospital referred the late leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria in Oyo State, Alhaji Lamidi Adesina, to St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos for further treatment.

Adesina died early Sunday morning at the Lagos hospital, weeks after he was transferred from the UCH.

The Chief Medical Director, UCH, Prof. Temitope Alonge, spoke at a press conference to herald the 55th anniversary of the hospital.

He said Adesina was transferred from the teaching hospital “on request” and not as a result of the inability of the hospital to manage him well or due to shortage of materials.

The CMD said, “When the late Lam Adesina was brought here, he was almost in coma. The state of his health at that time was such that his family members and those around him would have given up. On the night of his arrival in the private suite, I was notified by top government functionaries that he was coming.

“Before he arrived in the private suite, two consultants were waiting to receive him. The third and fourth consultants joined within five minutes of his arrival. First, he was so ill. We found it hard to get an intravenous access. The doctors eventually did and managed to resuscitate him and got him out of coma.

“In fact, two of the consultants stayed, monitoring him every 15 minutes – particularly his blood sugar. During the period, we also discovered that there was a kidney challenge and there was the fear that there was going to be an irreversible damage to his kidneys. The next morning, we commenced him on dialysis which was to flush out all the toxic materials that were killing his kidneys along with the diabetes.

“The next day, he was wide awake. He had recovered from the coma within 24 hours of arriving the UCH. By the second day of his admission, he had started to talk and exchange pleasantries.

“We were treating him on daily basis until he was discharged, not by the UCH, but on request by his associates – both family and political associates.”

Alonge stressed that in the team treating Adesina were four full-fledged consultants.

He said, “These specialists were monitoring him every 15 minutes.  He was having dialysis everyday to get his kidney to open up and it was up and running. We also noticed that he needed to have surgical intervention on his leg.

“He was attended to by not less than 10 top-rated consultants in this hospital while he was on admission. The issue of his being transferred to St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos was based on family, political associates and others that decided that they wanted him out of the UCH, to which we do not have a control.

“When a close relation of a patient or associate has a personal view and makes a decision, we do not go against the choice of the patient. That is exactly what transpired between the hospital and his associates and family.”

On the anniversary, Alonge, who gave the theme of the celebration as ‘Rebirth of excellence in safety and in health,’ said, “We know our challenges and we are confronting them headlong. We would neither be discouraged nor be perturbed.”

He said during the celebration, the teaching hospital would inaugurate the Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Centre, endowed by the former Board of Trustees Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih