Boy attacked by dogs got infections at LASUTH –Indian hospital

Abraham Omonigho after treatment at Indian hospital (l) and with family in Lagos ...on Friday

Available information has shown that four-year-old Abraham Omonigho, who was attacked by two German shepherd dogs in Igando area of Lagos State, in September 2014, was infected while at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.

This was said by the medical personnel at the Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, an Indian medical facility in Telegana State, where Omonigho was flown to late November, 2014, after his father, Odia, took him out of LASUTH.

After spending about two months at the Apollo Hospitals, Omonigho returned to Nigeria on Thursday. The treatment of the undisclosed infection was said to have lasted over one month.

Omonigho’s scalp had been covered up by the doctors but Odia said his son would return to India in June 2015, for a micro surgery.

Saturday PUNCH learnt this on Friday during a visit to the Abrahams in their Akesan Estate residence in Igando area of Lagos.

Our correspondent had reported that Omonigho was riding a bicycle with his brothers-Bobby and Osemidiamen-when they were attacked by the two dogs owned by their landlord.

The PUNCH had reported that while the older brothers jumped down from the balcony of their one storey apartment, the victim was ravaged by the dogs, which tore his scalp.

Neighbours and policemen were reported to have stood at the gate, helpless, until the victim’s mother arrived at the scene.

Our correspondent reported that the crowd persuaded her not to go in, but she was spurred to move in after seeing one of the dogs emerge from the balcony with blood in its mouth.

Helen reportedly fought off the dogs singlehandedly and rescued her son while the crowd assisted in taking him to the hospital.

The victim was taken to LASUTH and the State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, ordered the management not to collect money from the family.

However, the victim’s father, Odia, had a running battle with the hospital management, which he said still charged him for drugs and other medications.

Odia later raised the alarm that his son’s condition had worsened as a result of neglect by the hospital.

The Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, intervened and together with a non-governmental organisation, Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care, a trip to India was arranged for Omonigho to undergo a surgery.

The Lagos State Commissioner, Jide Idris, in a press release cautioned against the trip, saying the victim’s condition was delicate.

Idris alleged that the victim’s father declined the state government’s offer for Omonigho to be flown to another specialist hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Odia, however, insisted that his son’s head had started to rot and that the Indian trip had been concluded before the state government gave him the Dubai offer.

Odia said the Indian doctors thrashed the medical report LASUTH issued to them, which he said was termed as “mere paper.”

He said, “They said the report did not give them any information and couldn’t have been written by a doctor. They said it was good I quickly brought my son because his head was getting rotten and had been infected while at the hospital. The doctors told me they could not start with the surgery because they had to treat the infections first.

“You remember I cried out that my son’s head smelled, but the LASUTH people said it was granulation. I had always suspected things were wrong because at LASUTH, the nurses would open his head for dressing at 6am and leave it open for the doctors, who would not show up till 12pm. And when they did, they would ask the nurses to close it up. I remembered that no doctor showed up for two weeks during a particular time. That was when I got mad because his condition was becoming critical.

“But in India, they dressed his wound three times a day, and at least five special senior doctors attended to him every day.”

Our correspondent was shown a medical document of the hospital which confirmed that Omonigho’s head was infected.

It read, “At the time of admission, there was: large raw area over scalp with infection; the raw area was extending from frontal scalp, bilateral parietal scalp to occipital region; the raw area was looking pale and slimy; Infection+.

“Dr. Durga Prassad, consultant paediatrician, was consulted for evaluation of medical problems. He (Omonigho) was diagnosed as a case of infected raw area over scalp.”

Odia said the doctors told the family they needed to do skin grafting to temporarily cover up the wound before the major operation would be done after his return to India in June.