My son would've been alive if I had taken him away from LUTH by force - Mother

Slowly adjusting herself into one of the sofas in the tiny living room
that breezy Wednesday morning, Alhaja Rafiat Yakubu, could barely
utter a word. With eyes still swollen from days of crying and body too
weak to swing around, it was indeed a very difficult period for the
mother of five. Since losing her 30-year-old son, Yusuf, an
undergraduate of Psychology at the University of Lagos, to cancer on
July 22 this year, her world has suddenly taken a different twist. The
painful demise of Yusuf leaves a big hole in her heart.

"My son didn't deserve to die this way," she cried, while a handful of
women who had thronged the family home at Lawanson, a sprawling suburb
within the Lagos metropolis, made spirited efforts at consoling her.
"He was a lovable child," she continued. "He wanted the best for
everyone around him. He was the type of child any parent would wish
for.

"We started last year's Ramadan fast together but when it got to a
stage, he said he couldn't continue anymore, that he was experiencing
pains in his throat. But three weeks later, he complained of tooth and
gum pain. After some time, we noticed some wound inside his mouth.
Immediately, he started visiting the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital at Idi-Araba for a solution."

But rather than getting a lasting answer to his situation at LUTH, his
visit to the medical facility opened what would be a long and tortuous
journey on the sickbed. It is one step Alhaja says, flushed her son's
entire dreams down the drain.

"Even though Yusuf had done series of tests, a specialist he was
directed to see at LUTH asked him to do a particular one again at a
diagnostic centre at Surulere which costs N35, 000. When the doctor
saw the result, he said they were going to cut somewhere in his nose
and mouth which would be tested in the laboratory. He was asked to
come back the following week for the result on that. But by the time
he went back, nothing had been done. He was very sad and insisted that
they attended to him and give him the result.

"I was shocked to realise that he wasn't given any drug or analgesic
even after something was cut off from his nose and mouth. He told me
he wasn't given any drug, I wondered why. When the result was finally
released to him, he was told he had cancer. We couldn't believe it,"
she said.

The news came as a rude shock to the entire family. The result was
hard to accept. Cancer? Where did it come from? It had never happened
in the family. But what could they do? Time was running out. Yusuf's
condition was deteriorating. They needed answers at all cost.

"The doctor assigned to him at LUTH, Dr. Bamgboye, of the ENT section
said he should do a radiography test. He told us that their machine
was faulty and that we should either go to University College
Hospital, Ibadan or Eko Hospital. That was in November last year. At
Ibadan, we were also told the machine was faulty. We finally brought
him to Eko Hospital even though it was quite expensive.

"When we got there, we were first asked to pay N40, 000 which we did.
They however told us that we had to come back and do it in January
because there were so many people on the queue who had booked
appointments ahead. We pleaded with one of the workers there that he
was a student and he needed to be quickly attended to because of his
academics. The lady had pity on us and asked us to bring him for the
radiography the next day after we paid another N120, 000.

"We were also told that he would need to do chemotherapy for six weeks
at the cost of N45, 000 per week. Sometimes it could be as much as
N50, 000. After the whole treatment, we were given a note to take him
back to LUTH, that they had finished their own job on him. But by his
next clinic day, Yusuf could not stand or walk again.

"His sister went to complain to Dr. Bamgboye who told her that he
would only know what step to take after seeing him. The following
week, I took him down to LUTH myself but was told on arrival that the
doctor was away in Abuja for a meeting. I insisted that another doctor
attend to him but the nurses told us it was not possible and that it
was only Dr. Bamgboye who had been on his case that could attend to
him.

"We took him back to our private doctor and he checked him again. At
that point, he could not eat anymore," she said.

PUNCH