Following the tragic death of Dr Ovwaere Diaso at General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island in an elevator, her colleagues, Lagos house officers have cried out against the system, which they believe is rigged against young doctors, even as an eyewitness has revealed that as at the time Diaso was taken alive to the emergency unit of the hospital, “there was no blood to treat her.”
“Her forehead had a horizontal cut, her mouth had another one, raccoon eyes, no! She was lying in between the base of the elevator and the ground floor with the engine hanging over her head which meant any miscalculation in movement, she’ll be crushed to instant death!”
It would be remembered that Dr Diaso died on Tuesday, August 1 after the elevator she had taken to pick up her food from a delivery man fell from the 10th floor, leaving her with substantial injuries.
A Twitter user, also her colleague while narrating the chilling experience on the social media platform in a series of tweets revealed that the death was an avoidable one caused by the negligence of the hospital management.
According to Dr Moye, with Twitter handle @LaseMoye, “I was standing in front of the elevator and pressed the open button so I could step in, I was on a video call with my friend and it’s the singular reason I hadn’t entered just yet.
“I heard the Big Crash to the floor. Elevator crashed from the 9th floor to even below the ground floor, glass shattering, bricks clashing, sand trickling down,” she said, narrating the incident.
Dr Moye, also a House Officer at the hospital said a dispatch rider who also heard the sound ran out. He had been carrying the food Dr Diaso had ordered.
“He ran out of the building because of the impact that shook the foundations of the very building. It was then I realised what just happened.”
Continuing, she said, “I froze because I was in shock, then I heard Mr Charles shouting ‘hope nobody is inside’, I said if someone is there, the person is gone not knowing she was in there. And alive intact.
“Then Quadri ran down,” Moye said she shouted: “Vwaere is there,” and they started running out to get help. “They tried to use rods to open it, to be sure it wasn’t a joke, they finally opened it.”
In light of the multiple tragedies that led to Dr Diaso’s death, the house officers commenced a protest demanding justice with placards carrying messages like ‘the system is rigged against young doctors, ‘it could have been me’.
In a video shared on Twitter, House officers could be seen marching outside the hospital building with placards while they chanted: “All we are saying, give us justice.”
In a deep dive on Twitter, several tweets corroborating reports of the faulty elevator surfaced. A number of young medical practitioners, through their association handle, stated that the faulty elevator did not develop a recent problem.
They revealed that the elevator has stopped several times with people inside, while there was no maintenance, all to the knowledge of the hospital management. It was further revealed that while the elevator was built to carry about eight people, they reduced it to two or three to ensure no one gets stuck in it.
“It was always faulty and they knew about it,” they asserted.
Consequently, the Lagos State House of Assembly has commenced a probe of the elevator accident that led to the death of the young medical doctor, promising to ensure justice for the deceased.
The House also held a one-minute silence in honour of the deceased while sympathizing with the family and friends of the late doctor as well as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, who set up a committee to investigate the accident, said a proper probe of the incident which happened recently at the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, was needed to ensure proper management and safety of lives.
Diaso, who was said to be preparing for the completion of her housemanship in two weeks is a graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, died on Monday, exactly two weeks before the completion of her housemanship.
