A 42-year-old husband, Bello Baffa, lost his wife, Shema’u, 32, and her nine-month pregnancy on Saturday in Kano State over the scarcity of new naira notes.
Baffa lamented that his wife (Shema’u) bled to death while he was struggling to settle medical bills at the pharmacy through transfer.
He noted that he spent hours waiting for the cashier to confirm the payment of N8,528 for drugs because the hospital had stopped receiving the old naira notes.
The expectant woman was allegedly left in pain for more than eight hours without attention from the medical personnel on duty.
The bereaved husband regretted that the medical personnel insisted they would not attend to his late wife until he deposited money and provided evidence before his wife would be attended to.
Baffa said he had earlier provided N8,500 old naira notes to the cashier but he was told the hospital management had placed an embargo on the old currency and refused to provide a point-of-sale service except payment through transfer.
Baffa said that the hospital subsequently requested N4,000 for blood service after he had brought his relatives to donate blood for his wife.
He revealed, ”I was told I had to pay an additional N4,000 for blood service, and I quickly rushed out to the payment point. At that time, it was late and (I was) afraid my wife had suffered a lot without medical attention. So, after I made the payment and waited for an alert, I had to beg them to issue the payment evidence while my brother would remain with them pending when they would confirm the transfer.
“I also narrated my wife’s condition. They accepted the condition and the receipt was printed. I rushed to the ward again and it was at that moment, getting to 1am, that my wife was taken to the labour room.”
Regrettably, Baffa said the doctor came out of the labour room around 3am to break the bad news, ‘Your wife and unborn baby did not make it.’
Although the bereaved husband said he believed Shema’u would die at an appropriate time, he insisted that the “inhumane treatment” the hospital reportedly subjected his wife to because of the issues surrounding the old naira notes contributed to her sudden death.
Baffa disclosed that he had accepted his fate as a Muslim. He, however, urged the government to check the painful policy in order to save innocent lives from untimely death the way he lost Shema’u.
Efforts to get a reaction from the management of the hospital were not successful as our correspondent was directed to speak to the state hospital management board.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the board, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who confirmed the incident, stressed that the management had commenced an investigation into the matter.
He noted that the Chief Medical Director had been scheduled to brief journalists about the development as soon as the investigation is concluded.
