Controversy trials death of Ernest Elaigwu at FMC Abuja as family, hospital disagree

The family and colleagues of the deceased Barrister Ernest Elaigwu, Head of Chambers in the Law Firm of A.A. Ejembi and Company (Enene Chambers) have called for investigation of the cause of his death at FMC, Jabi, Abuja.

This was contained in letter addressed to the Federal Medical centre Abuja and signed by Barr. Aba Ejembi, Esq. (Principal Partner), Enene Chambers.

In the letter sighted by to Newsdiaryonline, Barr Ejembi recalled that on 26th December, 2021, Barr. Ernest St. Louis Elaigwu, Head of Chambers in the Law Firm of A.A. Ejembi and Company (Enene Chambers) was admitted at “your facility, the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja on a referral”. He was admitted at the Emergency Ward.

According him, upon his admission, a Covid-19 test was immediately administered and the result came in as negative. Other tests, including scans were also administered. Unfortunately, despite the treatment administered by the hospital, at about 8:30 am on Wednesday, 29th December, 2021 “our Learned Friend passed on to glory”.

The Strange Twist

“However, what we suspect was an attempt at corrupt practice began to unfold a few minutes after his death. First was to delay taking his corpse to the morgue. After an inordinate delay, the family and colleagues present were informed that it was necessary to conduct a Lassa fever test on the body as they suspected that it was the likely cause of death and that the family should make payment for the test.

“The family and colleagues countered that at no time, for the 4 days that their brother and learned friend was on admission was Lassa fever ever suspected and that if it was, then the level of medical negligence exposing everyone to danger, was inexcusable. At that point, the request for money to conduct any Lassa test was abandoned.

“Secondly, when the mortician informed family members that there was going to be some delay as they had to properly kit up to enable them take the body to the morgue. After waiting for a long while, the mortician and his team appeared in their white regalia with an ambulance to take the body. They proceeded to put the body of our deceased learned friend in a body bag despite the spirited protestation of members of the family and colleagues present.

“This morning, 31st December, 2021 when the family members went to the hospital to get the death certificate, they saw to their utter shock and dismay that the cause of death on record was Perforated Typhoid and Covid-19. This is despite the fact that a covid-19 test was administered and turned out negative on 26th December, 2021,” he explained.

Barr. Ejembi and the family of the deceased considering the forgoing asked,”If the case of Ernest Elaigwu, Esq of blessed memory was suspected to be covid-19, why did the hospital keep him for 4 days in a public ward with access to family members, colleagues and friends for all of the 4 days? Is this a case of medical negligence?

“After administering the covid-19 test on our learned friend with a negative result on 26/12/21, why are the FMC authorities still writing cause of death as covid-19? Is there a corrupt benefit to the FMC for turning such false result for covid-19?

“Is this how all the causes of death that are said to be covid -19 related (are) arrived at the FMC, Jabi, Abuja? If so, should the number of deaths said to be covid-19 related be ever accepted as correct by the general public and the international community, particularly donor agencies?”

They therefore demanded for the immediate withdrawal of what they called the false and offensive alleged cause of death as being covid-19 related and issue a certificate bearing the true cause of death which throughout the treatment regime was said to be typhoid related, among others.

“In view of the foregoing, we demand the immediate withdrawal of the false and offensive alleged cause of death as being covid-19 related and issue a certificate bearing the true cause of death which throughout the treatment regime was said to be typhoid related.

“Immediate removal of the body of our learned friend from the body bag as his cause of death does not warrant such treatment.

“Release of the body to the family to enable his young wife, his 2-year-old son, his parents, other family members, colleagues and friends to pay their last respects and bring about closure,” they demanded.

FMC Reacts to allegations, kicks:

Newsdiaryonline reports that the Head of Clinical Services, FMC, Jabi, Abuja, Dr Joseph Eziechila while reacting to the allegations told this newspaper that the deceased is Lassa fever positive.

Dr Eziechila said family and colleagues “talking nonsense” compared to the reality on ground.

He angrily told Newsdiaryonline: “Is it not the Barrister that died that is in morgue? They are even in more serious trouble, I think they will come to carry the corpse, the result came out last night he is Lassa fever positive. I have the result from NCDC, they are talking non – sense, they think it’s is law. I will carry them to lie down with the corpse and they will have Lassa fever too, I will know whether they will survive, they are here talking nonsense.

“..We suspected it’s a Lassa fever, so we asked the mortician to put him in a body bag, but for Lassa fever it is even the double body bag and not even one body bag.

“So, because we already suspected, we invited the NCDC who took the sample post mortem because (it) is a risk to every other person. If you don’t confirm the diagnosis and you go and handle the corpse like a normal corpse, all the villagers and the people will be exposed. Even we have been thinking of how they will burn the body.

“NCDC is already aware, even to take the corpse is a problem for them because wherever they are taking the corpse to NCDC has to inform their region office there to make sure the protocol is carried out, if not you share the thing and just kill people anyhow.

“Are you aware that two doctors died because of Lassa, that operated on a patient that has Lassa fever, and somebody will think it is a joke, is a social media event or what you go and start publicizing. NCDC is in custody of the result, they sent it to us yesterday. They did three, his own is positive.,” he said.

He added,” You know because it is a social risk, NCDC will not allow them, if not you will just allow them carry ambulance, so that all ofthem will contract it and wipe the whole family and generation out, but you don’t have to, because you don’t know other people they can share the thing to.

“We are doing contact tracing now in the hospital so that we can know all the nurses and doctors that managed the patient before he died. This is a serious problem for the hospital.”

Speaking on the demand for a change of the certificate bearing COVID-19 as the cause of death, Dr Eziechila told Newsdiaryonline that they can not change it because the certificate was issued by the NCDC.

He further said that appeal for the release of the body of the deceased should be made to the federal government and not the FMC, Abuja.

“We are not even talking about COVID now, the guy is Lassa fever positive. So, COVID-19 is even a small issue compared to the Lassa fever we are talking about. We can’t change it, they can go to NCDC, NCDC is it Federal Medical Centre? The test was done at Gudu by NCDC. Hospital(here) doesn’t have the facility to run test for Lassa fever.

“They should appeal to the federal government and not the federal medical centre, that is the reality now on ground. NCDC has done notification around that there is a corpse with Lassa fever in federal medical centre, Abuja. So, this is not even the issue of FMC alone, they don’t even (know) what they are in into. We have to inform the Chief mortician that that body in one body bag is Lassa fever positive, even the people that put that body bag, they are all at risk now. That is why I told you that there is no case here, they are all blabbing.

“When they blab finish they will come and face reality.(sic)We will send them to all those media to render apology to FMC, if they don’t do it, we will not release that body, we can go to court with them,” Dr. Eziechila stressed.

We demand public Investigation – Family lawyer

In response to further enquiry by Newsdiaryonline, the lawyer to the deceased’s family, Barr. Ejembi said that the claim by the FMC that the autopsy conducted on the deceased indicates that he is Lassa fever positive is ambiguous and he suspects a foul play considering the fact that the death certificate presented to the family as at 30th December, 2021 indicated he was COVID-19 positive.

He asked at what point did the FMC suspect that the deceased could be suffering from Lassa fever and why was he not isolated from colleagues, family and friends?

Ejembi further asked why should the FMC or the NCDC collect sample or conduct autopsy in the absence of the deceased’s family?

Going forward, he called for public and holistic investigation of the whole processes that led to the death of the deceased, and the death certificates to unravel the whole truth.

He said on Saturday,”Unfortunately this federal medical centre is lying, these are people, people entrust their lives to, they have no basis to lie. Yesterday when the younger brother to the deceased went to get the death certificate, he saw they wrote sepsis, typhoid perforation and COVID-19 as possible cause of death.

“He rejected it, he said he was not going to accept that, COVID-19 they had ran the test and it came out negative, that there was no basis for them to put it on that certicate because it wasn’t the cause of death. This afternoon, he went to the federal medical centre, then they said they now have a result, that they took his sample to NCDC on the 30th December, 2021.

“Recall that he died on the 29th December, he didn’t die on the 30th December,2021, they put his body in the body bag against the expectation of the family and most of us in law firm that the cause of death did not warrant that, but that was what they did. Accordingto them, ..the result (is now) Lassa fever.

“…If at all they ever took the sample from Ernest, why was no family member there. Did they go to the morgue to remove him from the body bag on the 30th, is that what they did? It has no integrity, we have written to the hospital unfortunately the administrative people are not around.

“We have written to them rejecting the results and we are calling for a full investigation into the cause of the death,. not just the cause but the course of the cause of death. It may become necessary to go beyond the cause of death to also look at their processes and system, that opens them up to possible corrupt practices, and we are thinking in the law firm that we are to write to the ICPC to look at their processes and system.

“Now the integrity of whatever they have been churning out as a result of people being positive for COVID-19, is at stake. In fact they are just looking for everything to tie to this guy. And one is wondering, it is so sad, so sickening the kind of country we are running.

“This young man is 41, he has a family, and his parents are also alive and those of us his colleagues, we don’t want all of these drama, let them just let us bury our dead, they can churn out any kind of statistics they want to but let them leave Ernest out this. If they need it to go and get their funding from their donors, let them leave us out of this,” he appealed.

On if there was no avenue for amicable resolution of this issue before they decided to go public, the Barrister said,” they kept the family at hospital there until about 5:00pm yesterday. They had to get in touch the Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the Abuja Bar, and he went there.

“We are rejecting that result, what they are doing is fraudulent, they can’t take sample behind the family. Why did they put COVID-19 yesterday in the death certificate.

“If they are denying that they put COVID-19 in the death certificate, we will go to the appropriate quarters. We are going to write to all the regulatory agencies. We wrote to them (FMC) for investigation into the cause of death. It will no longer be just them. It is going to be public investigation, whatever is the outcome will be accepted, all we want is the integrity of the process,” he stressed.