The father of a newborn baby, Kayode
Alatise, caused a stir at the Otunba Tunwase National Paediatric Centre,
Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, on Wednesday over the alleged “disappearance” of
his baby’s placenta.
Alatise alleged that the hospital
management told him on Monday when his wife, Falilat, delivered their
first baby that the placenta was missing.
He caused commotion as he threatened doctors and nurses at the centre located along the Sagamu-Benin Expressway.
The father of the baby insisted that
neither him nor his wife was given the baby’s placenta, adding he
rejected the placenta the hospital later attempted to return to him
because he was not sure it was actually his baby’s own.
He said, “We were referred to this
hospital, and when we got here they demanded N230,000 for caesarian
section. I was told that if I did not pay N50,000 deposit, they would
not commence surgery. I begged them that night, but they said they would
not do the operation until I paid. Before I got the money, it was
already
8am.
“After the operation, my wife asked me
if I had collected the placenta, but I told her no. The nurses and the
ward security now came to tell me that they saw me when I went to the
surgery room to take the placenta.
“After I reported the matter to the
police, they now called me to say that they had found the placenta. But
how am I sure that that is my baby’s placenta. They told me on Monday
that the placenta had got lost.”
The Deputy Medical Director and
Consultant Gynaecologist/Obstetrician, Dr. Oladayo Ogunlaja, who took
delivery of the baby, denied the allegation that any placenta got
missing.
Ogunlaja said the placenta was only
mistakenly taken into the hospital’s laundry by the cleaning attendant
who cleared out the Operating Room after Alatise’s wife was delivered of
the baby.
He added that if Alatise was not sure
that the placenta given to him was his baby’s, he could do a scientific
test to prove its genuineness.
He said, “The patient was actually a
referred patient. She was referred from the State Hospital, Ijebu Ode,
on Monday around 3am. She had been in labour, probably at a traditional
birth attendant centre, and she was referred to the state hospital from
where she was referred here.
“On getting here, she didn’t have money
and there was no blood. Because of that, we could not do the surgery. We
only admitted and stabilised her.
“By 8am, we eventually had the caesarian
section. The mother was fine and the baby was fine. The practice here
is that placenta should be handed over to the mother or father, but
there was a mix-up. The father did not request for it and the attendant
that cleaned the rtoom saw the nylon bag and took it down to the
laundry.
“Around 7pm yesterday (Tuesday), that
was over 36 hours after, they now requested for the placenta and it
became an issue. We started calling the workers that were involved. We
had delivered close to a thousand babies here and we have never had such
an issue. So, we started searching.
“Fortunately this morning, we went to
the laundry and lo and behold we saw the nylon bag with the decomposing
placenta still fresh with the blood. As soon as we found it, we called
the people involved and we gave it to them. It was the Chief Nursing
Officer that gave the placenta back and I think he should be happy that
the placenta has been given to him.
“If he is not sure that that is his
baby’s placenta, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital has just built a
new diagnostic centre where it can be tested. They can take it there.
But I am sure that is the placenta of the baby because all those babies
that were delivered before and after that period, their placentas were
given to their parents.”
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