Death of Medical Doctor causes fear among Federal Government medical staff and patients

The sudden death of a Medical Doctor identified simply as Dr. Okparaeke is said to be causing ripples among staffers and patients on admission at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

The death of the medical doctor is coming at a time when the state recorded two index cases of Coronavirus patients that were on admission at the hospital, which gave rise to the suspicion that he may have died as a result of COVID-19.

But Dr. Carol Iwuoha chairman Nigeria Medical Association, Abia State chapter and the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of FMC, Dr. Azubuike Onyebuchi in telephone chats with our correspondent have debunked it.

Information has it that late Okparaeke who was on Housemanship at the medical facility died on Monday less than one week of being on his new job.

Abia NMA chairman; Iwuoha and FMC CMD; Azubuike said that Okparaeke was rushed to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit immediately the incident happened, but all attempts to resuscitate him failed.

“The young House Officer is newly employed in the hospital. He came to work full of energy. He was to get a document for the consultant to sign and on his way back, he slumped. It was a painful one to us that a young doctor who came to work full of energy just slumped and died. He has just worked with the hospital for four days.

“That was not the team managing the suspected COVID-19 patients and therefore, the issue of dying as a result of COVID-19 isn’t true,” Iwuoha stated

Speaking on the two index cases of COVID-19 recorded in the state on Monday, Iwuoha said “We have always known that Abia State isn’t an island; it is part of Nigeria and anything that is affecting Nigeria is also affecting Abia State indirectly. So, we are not surprised that Abia has just recorded cases of COVID-19.

“To preempt this, we have been working with the State Inter-Ministerial Committee to put things in place in the event that we have a situation.

“The issue of high index of suspicion for every case that we are treating has been ongoing. We have advised our members to ensure that they take the necessary precaution so that they don’t get infected because not all of them will present practically as COVID-19.

“Some of them, especially now that we have community transmission, may come with other symptoms which will now lead to COVID-19. Some of the patients may not have had contacts with someone that came back from overseas or someone that has traveled to Lagos, so, anybody could pick it anywhere.

“On the issue of the lady that developed symptoms, she developed symptoms of COVID-19 while on admission, she didn’t come as COVID-19 patient. When she developed the symptoms, she was sent for the test and the test came out positive.

“Before she was sent for the test, those managing her already knew and of course, they were taking necessary precautions. However, now that she has been confirmed positive, the standard way to go is to trace the contact persons, quarantine and get them treated and we are trusting God that they will all be fine.

“The role of government is to provide infrastructure and then provide manpower to do the job. Facilities have been provided. We have also supervised the equipping of the facilities. They have also sponsored the training of those that will work in the facility, so we are ready.”

Azubuike on his part said that the hospital in collaboration with the officials of that National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has started drawning the list of the possible contact persons with the aim of possible isolation and quarantining them to contain possible spread of the disease in the state.