A mother, Abiodun Deborah has cried out to the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwoolu to probe the mysterious disappearance of the small intestine of her 12-year-old son, Adebola Akin-Bright while receiving treatment at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH.
Abiodun’s life was thrown into jeopardy when surgeons at LASUTH informed her about the disappearance of her son’s intestine after a corrective surgery performed on the boy on July 14, 2023.
Abiodun said his boy was referred to LASUTH from a private hospital, Obitoks Medical Centre situated at Ileepo in the Alimosho Local Government area of the state on June 17 following a complication from surgery to correct intestinal obstruction.
Narrating her ordeal, Abiodun said, “Sometime in February this year, my boy started vomiting and stooling and the hospital we took him to suspected typhoid and he was treated but when his condition didn’t improve after about five days, we moved him to another hospital, Obitoks Medical Centre, where it was discovered that he had ruptured appendix which would require surgery. He was out of the hospital after about two weeks looking so healthy again. He had even resumed school, doing well until June when he complained of pain in the stomach. We went back to the hospital where it was discovered that he had intestinal obstruction and he underwent another surgery.
“There appeared a complication as the boy was still draining bilious fluid more than seven days after the surgery, the CMD at Obitoks, Dr Abayomi Baiyewu then said the boy would require another surgery and according to him he had already secured the services of a Professor from a teaching hospital to be part of the operation. But we declined and urged him to refer us to LASUTH where we believed more robust care would be given to our child.
“We conducted a series of tests when we got to LASUTH, and the doctors there said the boy might not need to go through another surgery as the site where the bilious fluid was draining from could close up through conservative means but if not he would be operated upon. They asked us to buy different kinds of drugs, running many other tests until one Wednesday, about 25 days after we got to the hospital we noticed something like a burst from the site of an opening in his tummy and they decided that surgery would be conducted on him.”
Abiodun said the Consultant handling his son’s case told her after the surgery that when they opened up the boy, they found no small intestine in him and they could not guarantee that he would survive another five days.
She said the implication of the development was that the boy could no longer absolve nutrients from the food he consumes and may rely on total parenteral nutrition which would be given intravenously for the rest of his life.
“I was dumbfounded, it was like my whole life was shattered because it was a story that could be told in Nollywood. Where could a 26-feet long small intestine have gone to? We immediately contacted the surgeon who handled the first two surgeries and he wondered why LASUTH would claim they could not find bowel in the boy after spending 27 days with them. He insisted that he would never have referred us to the government hospital in such a condition and explicitly stated what he had done in his referral letter.
“The results of the test we ran when we got to LASUTH never indicated that such thing happened but they are insisting they didn’t find intestine in my boy. We are confused and we are begging the Lagos State government to unravel the puzzle. Since this incident, I have been buying total parenteral nutrition which costs about N65,000 and he takes two bags in three days, where would we be able to afford N110,000 every two days? From what we heard, except the boy undergoes an intestinal transplant, he may rely on TPN for life which could also damage his liver.
The intestinal transplant is not only extremely expensive, it is not done anywhere in Africa according to the information we got. I am begging the Governor to save my son and also unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of his intestine for the sake of justice,” she added.
