A woman, Ummi Makusidi, has sadly passed away after there was a power outage during her surgery and the standby generator refused to pick up during her surgery at Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital in Minna, Niger State.
Her husband, UB Shehu, gave a blow-by-blow commentary on Facebook as the travail continued. He recounted how a string of misfortunes dogged the scheduled surgery of his wife, leading to his eventual demise.
“Thirty-five minutes into my wife’s surgery, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), commonly called NEPA, cut the power. There was no fuel in the theatre’s generator,” he wrote.
He said fuel was quickly procured, but after refuelling the generator, it refused to start.
“Moments later, they brought fuel, but after filling the generator, it still wouldn’t start. They had to search for a mechanic.
The mechanic began work on the generator and soon realised he need a spare part and he was given money to go and procure it in the Ogbomoso area of Minna.
“Meanwhile, my wife remained inside the theatre,” he continued.
The bereaved husband recounted that the mechanic was still labouring on the generator about an hour later when electricity was restored.
He said the mechanic continued to work on the generator while his wife remained in the theatre.
“An operation that wasn’t supposed to last more than 90 minutes ended up stretching from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.,” Shehu recounted.
He said a nurse who saw his distress assured him when there was no light that he should not worry as the operation was ongoing with the aid of alternatives such as rechargeable lamps and torchlight.
He posted that when he and his mother-in-law finally beheld his wife in a ward, it was a terrible sight.
A few moments later he returned to the same Facebook to announce that he had just lost his wife.
In other posts, Shehu emphasised that his intention was not to apportion blame but to raise awareness and prevent future tragedies.
“The purpose of this narration is not to target anyone, but to help save lives and avoid similar incidents,” he wrote.
“I have already reported my case to Almighty Allah.”
Later, he posted on Facebook that his elder brother had ordered him not to talk about the incident on Facebook again.
Efforts to reach Dr. Bello Tukur, the Niger State Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Healthcare, were unsuccessful, as calls and messages went unanswered.
