How hospital’s negligence led to my first-class graduate daughter’s death

Father of 24-year-old Rebekah Sekidika, a first-class graduate of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo State, Sampson Sekidika, speaks to DENNIS NAKU on how his daughter died during a procedure at a hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and his spirited efforts to get justice for the deceased

How old was your daughter when she passed away and what school did she attend?

My name is Sampson Sekidika. I hail from Okrika in the Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State. I work with Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas as a lead process engineer in the expansion coordination department at the head office here in Port Harcourt. I am the father of the late Rebekah Tamunotorukubu Sekidika. She was 24 years old and graduated from Benson Idahosa University, Benin City in Edo State, where she studied Microbiology and made first-class.

What led to her death?

Before February 2, 2024, my daughter had a series of clinical visits to Paragon Clinics and Imaging Diagnosis located at No. 96 Stadium Road. Paragon Clinics and Imaging Diagnosis is a retainer-ship hospital used by the NLNG. So the NLNG recommended that we use that clinic because they have been qualified to attend to their staff and families. That is why we used that place. It is part of their HMO. So what was my daughter’s complaint? She had some clinical visits and tests she did with them and since November last year (2023) she had not seen her period for nearly three months so she needed to know why. So they carried out a series of tests, including pregnancy and everything came out negative. But they decided that she should see a specialist, more like closing that part of the whole investigation.

She got the call on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, to see a specialist which she did a day before. So they said they were going to do a hysteroscopy on her, which is supposedly a simple procedure that involves using a probe with a light bulb at the end to be inserted through her private parts to see what was causing the obstruction or whatever it was, and they would be seeing it on a monitor at the same time. So that was why they did that. I didn’t know before then that she was going to be given any form of anaesthesia, spinal anaesthesia for that matter for a simple procedure. They said they just wanted her not to feel any pain.

On February 2, 2024, the doctor said she should come between 12 noon and 1pm. So I drove her and her mom to the clinic and around 12.30pm I left to attend to some other things. From what we know about hysteroscopy, the procedure takes between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the doctor handling it. So by 3.10pm I called my wife and asked why they hadn’t called me. She said the doctor had not come out. I now said if by 4pm nothing happened I would come and pick them. My daughter was having an online class at the university by 4.30pm. She had the last online classes and closed her laptop.

What happened next?

By 4.30pm, my daughter walked into the theatre; she was not sick; she was hale and hearty. She had no issues at all; she was very strong. By 5pm it was expected my daughter would have been out of the theatre but was not out. Around 5.10pm, I had already arrived at the clinic. So I went upstairs to stay with my wife. I asked her what was going on. She said they were still in the theatre. I now went to the reception area to sit. Around 5.30pm, my wife came rushing to me saying that something was not right; she heard them in the theatre shouting ‘Rebekah wake up, wake up, wake up’. Then we saw nurses running up and down.

Then it was nearly 6.20pm we saw them rolling up oxygen bottles from downstairs through the elevator. I was wondering what was going on and each time we saw the matron, we asked what was going on with our daughter, she would say our daughter would be fine. That was what she said until around 7pm when two doctors came to the reception area where I was seated. They said they did everything they could but lost our daughter. I don’t know the unusual calmness that came over me. It was just like a dream and I needed someone to wake me up from that bad dream. When I got into the theatre, what I saw was terrifying. I saw my daughter in a pool of blood. My wife rushed into the theatre and shouted, ‘God! God! You people have killed my daughter’. She was shouting and crying all over the place. The doctors and nurses all disappeared from the third floor. We didn’t see anyone.

My wife then called our sons to inform them of what had happened. They were crying. While our last born was crying, his flatmate heard it and called his father here in Port Harcourt who happens to be my colleague, Isaac Chu, who immediately drove down with his wife to the hospital to see us. We went to the reception and luckily we saw a nurse, who took us to see the doctors, who were in a room downstairs. By then, Rebekah’s younger sister, and two of my wife’s sisters with their husbands had arrived. This was around 10pm. So you can imagine that from 7pm to 10pm none of them came to even console us.

When we entered the room where they were, the doctor and the anaesthesia specialist were seated. Isaac Chu now asked the doctor to tell us what happened. He now started the story by saying they had prepared her for the procedure and he pointed at the specialist who gave her the spinal anaesthesia. I asked him why the heavy spinal anaesthesia. He now said that 30 minutes into the procedure they lost her, adding that about 10 minutes into the procedure, my daughter said she couldn’t breathe. Shortly after, she said she wanted to throw up and they brought something for her to throw up into, and what they saw was blood. At that time blood had already filled her lungs.

So apparently something happened when he was doing the procedure. It was later discovered that the anaesthesia specialist ruptured a vessel inside of her when he inserted the probe. The anaesthesia was on one hand killing her and the blood vessel they ruptured caused her to bleed inside and it went into her lungs. The doctor now said when Rebekah vomited blood the second time, he was confused about what to do because he had never seen such a thing before. That was when they stopped the procedure and tried to take over her respiratory system by which time she was already lifeless. At that point, Isaac Chu took me outside and asked me to call my sister, who is a consultant physician, and her husband is a consultant surgeon.

What happened after you called your sister?

My sister and her husband came past midnight, went upstairs, and saw my daughter. Immediately she broke down and her husband took her away. They came downstairs, saw the doctor, and started asking him questions. One of the things she asked was, ‘If you’re carrying out a procedure like this and you notice a vessel rupture or vascular rupture, what are you supposed to do to salvage the situation?’ He (doctor) said he didn’t know, and he was confused when she started vomiting blood. So she was just killed by negligence and incompetence. Then my sister asked the anaesthesiologist what his qualifications were. He said a diploma. So, he too wasn’t a consultant. My sister and her husband now asked for the death certificate. They said she died of pulmonary embolism/vascular rupture. Pulmonary embolism is when you see blood clotting in the lungs. Vascular rupture! Who ruptured the vessel? It was their procedure. So it was purely an act of negligence and incompetence that killed my daughter.

Did the hospital make any attempt to pacify your family?

Early on Saturday, we took her corpse and deposited it in the Military Hospital mortuary. Throughout Sunday and Monday, I didn’t get a call from anybody, if not for anything but to say we are sorry for what happened and this and that. So they completely ignored me and my family. At that point we were confused. What emboldens them or gives them this impunity I don’t know. It is very bad behaviour. So I got a call from my boss to go to the police since it is a state matter.

So, I reported the case to the state homicide department on Monday and raised a petition, got it approved, and raised a letter, which was addressed to Paragon Clinics and the NLNG. The one to Paragon and Imaging they gave them till February 8. They asked the administrator to come with the two doctors involved in the procedure so that they could take their statements. Paragon did not honour the invitation. That Thursday, February 8, 2024, my daughter was supposed to travel to the United Kingdom. On February 12, the police wrote a reminder to Paragon Clinic to produce the people by Wednesday, February 14, but they did not show up.

They (police) went and obtained a warrant of arrest, did all the paperwork, and stormed the hospital on Thursday. They picked the administrator, and the radiologist and the head of the cleaners accompanied their madam to the Deputy Commissioner of Police office at the state CID. I was called to listen to what the hospital administrator had to say. They asked her why she shunned the repeated invitations.

What was her response?

She said when they received the first letter on February 6, the tone of the letter was that somebody was killed in their clinic and that they should produce the two doctors, that she was afraid. So she took the letter and gave it to the legal people, who instead of producing the people involved took the letter to Human Rights International in Abuja. I don’t know what they presented before the human rights body. They obtained a court injunction there for the police not to investigate, arrest, or prosecute them on this matter. So the Deputy Commissioner of Police was confused and asked, ‘Was the injunction to protect the parents of the deceased or to protect yourself?’ The DCP was very furious. He now asked one more question: did you serve the police this injunction? She said she gave it to one of their administrative staff members who said he did not serve the police.

The DCP told the Investigating Police Officer to keep her in custody until the doctors involved in the procedure were produced. The following day, the hospital came with more than eight lawyers; the husband of the administrator flew into Port Harcourt: the Nigerian Medical Association got involved and produced the doctors, the nurse, the matron, and the administrator. So they knew what they were doing. Why did they kill my daughter? Why did they experiment with my daughter? What have they done with her? Up till today, I don’t know.

What happened after that interrogation, which you witnessed?

I heard all of them speak but I didn’t say anything. In the end, the DCP said they should take their statements and we should all go. So we put our heads together and talked about the autopsy. Finally, Paragon Clinics produced their pathologist, and I produced my own. My pathologist stood for my family and the police. Then the NMA produced its pathologist, and my company, the NLNG, produced its pathologist. My sister, who is a medical doctor, was an observer. So there were five people for the autopsy. My sister witnessed everything and signed off on behalf of the family.

When did they say the autopsy result will be out?

About three to four weeks. They performed the autopsy on February 22. The following day I applied to the police to release her corpse for burial. So they granted my application a week after we had about eight days or so to prepare for the burial.

Has she been buried and where?

Yes, she was buried on March 2 at a private section of the Port Harcourt Cemetery.

Are you satisfied with the police investigation of the incident so far?

Yes, I’m satisfied with what they are doing so far, you know, getting all the proper documentation from them, investigating and calling all the parties, and meeting with them. There is no foul play so far to be honest with you. I’m okay with the way it is going. If I were not impressed with the way it is going, I would have raised the alarm and even informed you to see what is happening.

It was reported by a blog that your daughter went to the hospital for liposuction and died in the process. How would you react to that?

Oh my God, it is unfortunate! A lot of people called me and reported what they read. I said well it’s an Instagram report. There will be lots of wrong narratives out there because these people probably are spreading propaganda through their machinery. So when you see something like that you report that page, you tell them, say what you know that that wasn’t what she went for. So I don’t know how we can get to the root of that issue or the people behind it and know who they are. But I learned that if one reports to Instagram there is a way Instagram will either close them or investigate or that if you inform the police, the police can find out who they are and pick them up and ask why they didn’t investigate before spreading false information and false narrative and diverting people’s attention. That is very unfortunate but that is the country we find ourselves in. There will be lots of false narratives that will be put out there just to divert peoples’ attention.

What is liposuction? How can she go for that kind of thing? The doctors are not there? Haven’t they given their statements? Their statements are with the police. Did they not say it before the police that she went there for a diagnosis hysteroscopy? So what are they talking about? Do they even do liposuction in that clinic? They don’t. So that is unfortunate and I don’t blame them because you know people should close their eyes and swap positions for a moment.

Has the hospital or the doctors reached you yet after the burial?

They have not. It is like I’m their enemy. They were looking at me with scorn that day, very arrogant people, after killing my daughter they are acting as if I can’t do anything to them. Anyway, we will see how it goes by the grace of God.

Hospital, NMA’s reactions

When our correspondent visited the Paragon Clinic and Imaging located on Ken Saro-Wiwa Road, Port Harcourt, a front desk officer, who simply gave his name as Chima, said he was aware of the incident, but that the manager was not in the office.

Asked if there was any other official who could speak on the matter, Chima asked our correspondent to channel any inquiry to the state chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association.

“Okay as regards the issue of Rebekah, currently our manager is not around. But you can channel all your inquiries to the NMA chairman, Rivers State chapter. That is it for now,” he said.

The state NMA Chairman, Dr Ebi Robinson, said the matter was under police investigation.

He stated that a coroner’s inquest was ongoing on the case and that the NMA would take the matter up from there when the result was out.

Robinson said, “The matter is under police investigation and a coroner inquest is already in progress.

“So, we are awaiting the conclusion of the coroner’s inquest and then we will take it up from there. The death of that young lady is quite regrettable.

“Our sincere condolences to the family. The NMA’s position is to make sure that the matter comes to a closure conclusively in a manner that will be acceptable to all involved and all concerned.”