A pregnant woman and her baby died after the doctor who was supposed to operate the mother was allegedly detained by Lagos police officers enforcing curfew in the state.
The surgeon was held for about an hour on Airport Road, Ikeja, Lagos State, for violating the Covid-19 curfew, Punch reports. The doctor had explained that she was on an emergency call but the officers reportedly refused to listen to her pleas.
When the doctor was eventually released, she arrived at the hospital to discover that the pregnant mother and her unborn child were dead.
The incident happened on Monday, August 31, 2020, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba, Surulere. The deceased was identified only as Mistura.
A witness who spoke to the publication said the female doctor broke down in tears when she saw there was nothing she could do to save Mistura and her baby.
The witness said, “The doctor is a woman. In fact, she was also ill and was placed on a drip at home when she was called for the emergency.
“Because her car was bad, she got a cabman to take her to the hospital. She left her house around past 9pm.
“Around 10.15pm, they got to the under bridge around Airport Road, where they met the policemen. They had been stopped by other policemen before they got to that spot. But when she showed them her ID card, they allowed her to pass.
“But these ones refused. After she showed one of them her ID card and said she was on an emergency to see a patient who was between life and death, the policeman ordered the driver to park. He took her ID card and asked her to prove she was on an emergency.
“She went to meet another member of the team and begged him that she needed to leave immediately and that the life of her patient was at risk. She was in a nightgown; she could not even change when she got the call. But the second policeman shunned her.
“The policeman said she was foolish and she was a prostitute because a doctor would never dress the way she was dressed. She begged them and explained the circumstances but they refused to listen and demanded the emergency letter.”
The source added: “There were four policemen on duty that night. Only one was on mufti. Their tags were not visible because they wore overalls. They saw the drip in the doctor’s hand; she was risking her life to save another person but they never allowed her.”
