St. Gerard Hospital : Always there for Abuja–Kaduna road accident victims, but…
In 2009, it took the intervention of the Emir of Zazzau, Dr. Shehu Idris, before 25 unclaimed corpses were evacuated from the morgue of the missionary hospital. Sunday Trust gathered that annually, the hospital is left to brood over what to do with between 20 and 30 unclaimed corpses of accident victims and many abandoned […]
In 2009, it took the intervention of the Emir of Zazzau, Dr. Shehu Idris, before 25 unclaimed corpses were evacuated from the morgue of the missionary hospital. Sunday Trust gathered that annually, the hospital is left to brood over what to do with between 20 and 30 unclaimed corpses of accident victims and many abandoned sick persons who died while receiving treatment.
The most recent of the unclaimed corpses was that of one Andrew Audu who was knocked down by a speeding car along Unguwar Yelwa, a suburb in the state during the yuletide season. He was rushed to the hospital by policemen who were patrolling the area. Two weeks after the celebrations, no one has been to St. Gerard to claim the corpse of the late Audu.
According to the public relations officer of the hospital, Mr. Sunday John Ali, Audu died few days after he was rushed to the hospital. ‘’His relatives came initially, but we can no longer trace them,’’ he added.
In Kaduna, with the ongoing renovation work at the 44 Reference hospital and the relocation of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) from Kaduna to Shika in Zaria in 2005, St. Gerard hospital has become the main accessible hospital for accident victims, and it has become famous for that.
Daily, according to the statistics of accident victims obtained at the hospital, not less than 10 accident victims are admitted. In 2010, a total of 3,499 accident cases were recorded, of which 1,835 were motor accidents while 1,664 were motorcycle mishaps. From this, a total of 326 deaths were recorded from the road accidents.
In 2009, the hospital admitted 3,701 accident cases. Out of this, 2,240 were motor accidents and 1,461 were from motorcycle crashes. A total of 346 accident victims died in 2009.
Established by the Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna in 1957 as a dispensary unit, a temporary medical centre, it has grown steadily to a hospital with as many as 230 bed space health centre.
At its earliest beginning, it provided medical services to anumber of patients in and around Kaduna who are poor and underprivileged. Therefore, services were rendered almost at no cost to patients. This approach was sustained for a long time due to the support the hospital was receiving from missionaries. At present, the hospital provides both primary and secondary healthcare for maternal and child medical care and also on orthopedic surgery, X-ray, physiotherapy, laboratory and HIV/AIDS (ART) programs.
The spokesperson of the hospital told Sunday Trust that their problem was not that of the growing number of accident victims rushed to them daily, but the resultant unclaimed corpses.
He said local government authorities were not discharging one of their responsibilities, that of evacuating unclaimed corpses from hospitals. Because of their attitude, he said, the hospital will embalm unclaimed corpses in order to preserve them.
“Each time you go to the local government council and ask them to evacuate unclaimed corpse, they will not come. They are fond of giving excuses. As I am talking to you, we have 10 unclaimed corpses, most of them accident victims. Some are patients who died while receiving treatment. Some families abandon their sick ones when they discover that the person’s ailment is a terminal one,’’ he said.
The only way to address the problem of unclaimed corpses, according to him, is for travelers to always register themselves properly in the passenger manifest. He suggested further that travellers should have on them identity cards of any type.
Apart from the problem of unclaimed corpses, he said the hospital also battles with “dodging’’ of medical bills. “You know, we don’t ask for money from accident victims until after their treatment. Many of them after recovering will jump fence. Last year, we lost over N500, 000 to this challenge,” he added.
He advised the state government to find a means of regulating the activities of commercial motorcyclists, saying 70 percent of accidents recorded in the state are as a result of the recklessness of motorcyclists.
“What we need now to be able to do more for accident victims is a CT scan machine for brain and spinal cord scanning . We need it because most accident victims sustain head injuries and before we take them to Shika, their condition can deteriorate. The machine costs between N35 million and N40 million,’’ he said.
When contacted, the Deputy Director, Disease Control of the Kaduna South Local Government Area, Mallam Umar Kussalo, exonerated the authorities from blame over abandoned corpses. He rather blamed St Gerard hospital, because the council has nothing to do with private medical centres.
Mallam Kusallo said, “the hospital is under our local government, but it is not our responsibility to evacuate unclaimed corpses from there because it is a missionary and private hospital. We don’t have any business with them; we remove unclaimed corpses in government hospitals only.
“For us to evacuate a corpse whose relatives are nowhere to be found, the hospital will have to make an announcement on television, obtain a warrant for burial from a court of law and submit it to the council chairman, who will, in turn, direct us to evacuate and bury it. This is the procedure for government hospitals, but not a private one, ’’ he argued.
Commending the hospital, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in the state, Mr. Harrison C. Pepple, said the role the hospital is playing in providing medical care to accident victims is unequalled.
“They are always there for us 24 hours. They attend to accident victims any time of the day without wasting time. We wish that government and public-spirited individuals would encourage them by assisting them with necessary logistics because their role in assisting accident victims is immeasurable,’’ he added.
He said St. Gerard, 44 Reference hospital and Barau Dikko Hospital are always there for them whenever the need arises. According to him, a total of 25 persons lost their lives to road accidents during the last Christmas and new year celebrations in Kaduna state.
The sector commander said the state recorded 17 road crashes between December 7 and 13 last year and that the accidents which involved 21 vehicles and five motorcycles involved 94 persons, with 14 of them losing their lives, while 38 of them were rushed to the hospitals for medication.
Between December 28, 2010 and January 3, this year, he said, the state recorded a total of 20 road accidents involving 17 vehicles and 5 motorcycles. ‘’In those accidents, 11 people died and 77 persons sustained various degrees of injuries. They were rushed to hospitals for medication,’’ he added.
He attributed the causes of the accidents to over-speeding, tyre burst, poor visibility as a result of the harmattan and violation of traffic rules by road users. He said most of the accidents occurred along Kaduna-Abuja, Zaria–Kano and Birnin Gwari roads.
He advised motorists and commuters to always register themselves in the passenger manifest for easy tracing of their families in case of emergency, and that most of the unclaimed corpses were as a result of poor identification.
‘’We have been discouraging people from mass travelling during festive periods because all other days are like festive days. People should learn to see their families before festive periods. This is the only way we can reduce congestion on our roads caused by massive movement of people during festive periods,’’ he said.
He reiterated the commitment of the Commission to educate Nigerians on the inherent dangers of travelling at night, saying the FRSC cannot prevent motorists from night journeys because there is freedom of movement in Nigeria.