Family wants doctor probed after man he pronounced dead woke up at his funeral in Akwa Ibom
Friends and family of a Nigerian man are protesting the unprofessional conduct of a doctor who reportedly confirmed a young man dead without carrying out all necessary checks.
The said man was said to have woken up when his funeral was ongoing the following day. He died hours later at a teaching hospital he was taken to.
The family and his friends, however, believe he might have survived if he had been appropriately diagnosed as being in coma when he was first taken to the hospital some 24 hours earlier and placed on life support.
Usen-Obong Ime Jacob, 27, slumped in his parents’ home on Sunday evening, May 1, and was taken to a private hospital in Abak, Akwa Ibom state.
The doctor declared him dead that same evening and the family held a funeral for the man the following day, Monday, May 2.
However, as mourners surrounded the coffin with the deceased inside, the coffin allegedly “opened on its own” and mourners noticed the deceased breathing weakly.
A video taken at the funeral shows mourners expressing shock when they noticed Usen-Obong was still alive.
Usen-Obong was then taken to the Teaching Hospital in Uyo where the doctor checked him and said he only died “2 hours ago”.
A friend of the deceased who reached out to LIB blamed his death on the lack of professionalism of the doctor at the private hospital who declared him dead.
He said Usen-Obong, 27, was obviously in a coma and might have survived if he was placed on life support, rather than in a coffin where his situation was obviously made worse.
“We need justice for Usenobong… This matter can’t slide,” the friend of the deceased told LIB.
Watch the video taken at the funeral below as sent to LIB.
