The Management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) in Kwara State, has suspended Prof A. K. Salami as a senior consultant in the hospital.
In a statement signed by the hospital’s Director of Administration, David S. Odaibo, on behalf of the Chief Medical Director, the suspension was in connection with the handling of the case of a coronavirus patient in the hospital.
The statement titled, “Immediate Suspension of Prof A. K. Salami read:
“The Management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital here by suspend Prof A K Salami as a Senior Consultant in the hospital.
“This is as a result of his unethical conduct in the admission, management and eventual release of the corpse of a suspected Covid -19 patient who died in the hospital on the 3rd of April, 2020”.
It would be recalled that the circumstances surrounding the death of a UK returnee in the hospital had generated controversy on the cause of death.
The Kwara government had issued a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Rafiu Ajakaye, that there are no facts that the UK returnee who died in Ilorin had coronavirus.
But in the reaction of its hospital’s medical advisory committee, which was first circulated online on Sunday, the hospital said the deceased’s travel history was concealed and his case presented as food poisoning.
The hospital’s statement was signed by the committee chairman, Olorogun Emerhor, and the Chief Medical Director, Yusuf Abdullah.
“A 57-year – old, male, was brought into the Accident and Emergency Department on the night of Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 in the company of one of the hospital’s Professor of Internal Medicine (a specialist in infectious diseases); with history of abdominal discomfort/stooling, following ingestion of rotten pineapples.
“He was then admitted and managed as a case of food poisoning’. The patient later died in the early hours of the following day, 2nd, April, 2020,” the tertiary hospital said.
UITH said it was not informed about the deceased’s travel history until after his corpse had been released to a relative for burial.
“Following the patient’s death and release of his corpse to the managing Professor (who happens to be for immediate burial in accordance with Islamic rites), the hospital management received several anonymous calls disclosing information of recent travels by the patient and his wife to UK and having been on self isolation on arrival to Ilorin prior to presentation at A&E (on the advise of the Professor who brought him) – Information that was concealed from the frontline medical personnel at first contact in the A&E, an act that the hospital management considered HIGHLY UNETHICAL!”
Based on the annonymous information, the hospital’s management and its COVID-19 Committee labeled it a ‘Suspected Case’ and notified the Kwara State COVID-19 Committee Response Team.
The hospital said it facilitated a proactive fumigation of the hospital’s Medical Emergency Department and advised close contacts of the patient to self-isolate while they are followed-up by UITH’S COVID-19 Committee Team.
Nonetheless, the laboratory samples from the deceased’s wife, the professor, and all others identified as very high risk contacts were collected for testing, using National COVID-19 guidelines.
