My daughter wasn’t taken to hospital until she died, says father of late corps member

Olawale Oladepo, the father of Ifedolapo Oladepo, a deceased corps member, has said that negligence led to her death and not kidney infection as claimed by the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).

Oladepo, a graduate of Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, recently died at the NYSC orientation camp in Kano.

Ifedolapo, who spoke to journalists on Monday, said no one had contacted the family request for approval to exhume her corpse for an autopsy.

The bereaved father said: “The NYSC has not written to the family to consider autopsy. Nobody has contacted the family to exhume the corpse.

“Autopsy is the last thing that can be done and that will be after the investigation panel set up by the Presidency submit their report.”‘

“Dolapo nursed no ailment. She was always hale and hearty. I took her to the motor park to board a bus bound for Kano and the bus departed at 6am on Thursday November 24. ‘’After a brief father-daughter talk at the park, the bus departed at 9am. She called at regular intervals along the journey till she got to Kano around 1am the following morning.

“At dawn of 25th, she headed straight for the NYSC Orientation Camp with two other friends she journeyed with from Osogbo. ‘’After much ordeals of registering at the camp, she called me in the afternoon to keep me abreast of developments.

“At 6:30am the following morning (Saturday, 26th November, 2016), she called again as usual. She reported that they were woken up by 4am and that they had finished the morning drill after which they would go for another parade and the opening ceremony later.

“On that Saturday, she sent home all the pictures taken with funfair with some of her friends and she looked hale and hearty that day according to the pictures as she participated in all the activities of the day. I now wonder if a person who had kidney infection as claimed by the NYSC could participate and be so radiant in all the pictures she sent.

“On Saturday, 27th, she reported there were no activities. Her mother even called her that Sunday to send her NYSC state code number and she did not complain of any ailment. It was on Monday she called her elder sister complaining that she felt sick and was not being attended to because they thought she was trying to avoid the day’s drill.

Oladepo added that the medical personnel at the NYSC failed to give his daughter prompt medical care when she complained of malaria .

“The sister started conversations with the medical personnel on duty and begged them to attend to her. The sister’s battery went flat so she called an uncle who is a consultant. The uncle asked what she was given, they told him Placebo. After some persuasion, they agreed to give her medications. Some times later, when her sister’s phone came on, she told her they administered some drugs on her and shortly after, her speech slurred, the tongue twisted and she could not talk properly.

“There were visible patches of blood under her skin and rashes all over her body. She took the picture of the hand to testify to this and she sent it home. When her sister called again, the medical personnel on duty told her she reacted to the drugs given and that they had given her hydro cortisone to counter the reactions and that after one hour, if her situation did not improve, they would transfer her to a teaching hospital after much plea from the sister asking them to transfer her to the teaching hospital.

“The battery of the deceased phone later went off. When the younger sister called her around 4pm of that same day, she answered the phone but complaining she has not been taken to any health institution requesting that we should come by air to take her back home.

“It was then the sister called Ilorin and when they said the plane had departed and another wouldn’t be available till Wednesday, she travelled to Ibadan to catch the night bus to Kano. It was on their way that the sister was called around 4am on Tuesday, that she had passed on.

“My request to NYSC is to give the family and the entire world a vivid account of what happened to my daughter between 8am on Monday that she reported to the camp clinic and the time she passed on at 4am the second morning as reported by them.

“The doctor on duty at the Gwazo General Hospital, Kano said she had Sepsis that led to kidney infection. I wonder if truly she had kidney infection, did the Camp have proper medical facilities to have kept her; and why taking her to the General Hospital with no facilities to treat such ailments? Hence, by implication, whatever ailment may have developed when she got to camp could not have resulted to death if she had been promptly attended to and taken care of. However, she died out of negligence and lackadaisical attitude of the NYSC

“Lest I forget, the NYSC may now tell me what the relationship is between the second hand knickers she was alleged to have worn, the rashes on her body, the twisted tongue, the blood patches on her skin, the fingers and toes that turned black, the slurred speech and the kidney infection that they claimed she had. Until they give answers to these questions, we have little to talk about.

“This is not in a way to indict anybody but to bring out the truth of the whole scenario. Apparently, she was not taken to any tertiary hospital until she died, according to the medical certificate of the cause of death issued by Gwazo General Hospital and I quote; “She died as I’m aware or informed on the 29th of November, 2016 at 4am and that the cause of death was Septic shock and kidney injury”.

“I’m worried about this report that she had Urinary Tract Infection leading to kidney injury. Thus, I wish to state for the umpteenth time that the cause of death as claimed by NYSC is simply contradictory!.

“May I also recall that as she conversed with me and the sister the twisted tongue showed because her speech was slurred. We have strong cause to believe their accounts were mere fabrications. People don’t mind calling white black just to cover up. All we are saying is, the NYSC negligence sent our daughter to her early grave.”

He also urged the investigation panel set up by the presidency to unravel the real cause of her death.