A prominent consultant physician in Kano State died while attending to patients who had waited many hours for his evening clinic at a hospital in Kano State, just 15 minutes after arriving at the facility. Medical Facilities & Services
The incident, which occurred last Saturday at Arewa Surgery Hospital, Hotoro, Kano, was said to have happened after the doctor allegedly agreed to cover for another specialist who was unavailable for booked appointments, Daily Trust reports.
The narrative was made public by Suleiman Harbo, an advisor to the Jigawa State governor, who was among the relatives of the patients present when the tragedy occurred.
Harbo described how he had taken his elderly mother to the hospital around 5 p.m. to visit a consultant physician.
The hospital staff told them on arrival that the doctor attending to them would not be available and advised the deceased merely identified as Dr Ibrahim.
He said there were roughly six patients, most of them over 80 years old, waiting to see the doctor, leading him to call the hospital reception to query about the delay.
The receptionist called the doctor and said there were elderly individuals waiting, including his mother, he said. Medical Facilities & Services .
It was reported that Dr Ibrahim told them that he would come after observing the Maghrib prayer.
The specialist arrived shortly thereafter but grew dizzy immediately after stepping out of his vehicle, Harbo added.
Doctors were working to bring him back to life after fellow medical workers rushed him to the hospital’s emergency unit, he added.
“He was confirmed dead within 15 minutes,” Harbo wrote, characterising the incident as surprising and terribly traumatic.
The development has left patients and medical professionals saddened, he said.
“The painful irony was that all the patients waiting to see him were above 80 years of age. About five senior consultant doctors fought to save him but all of them broke down in tears,” he claimed. Medical Facilities and Services
Harbo said his mother was not aware of the situation at first, and asked if the doctor had arrived.
Another patient is claimed to have told her that before he could answer that the doctor they all had been waiting to see had died.
Hearing the news, Harbo said his mother instantly offered prayers for the dead.
“We belong to God and to Him we shall return. So that was the doctor they were rushing in? May Allah have mercy on him. C’mon, let’s go home. “I am well now,” she remarked.
I could barely keep from crying driving my mum home after it happened’, said Harbo.
He also revealed that witnesses at the doctor’s deathbed reported his last audible words were, “La ilaha illallah,” the Islamic statement of faith. Medical Services and Facilities
Harbo called the loss a long-term loss and begged for Allah to forgive the shortcomings of the late physician and grant him Al-Jannah Firdaus.
The cause of Dr. Ibrahim’s abrupt collapse was not immediately known.
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