Against the Hippocratic Oath, it was impossible, last week, for former Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMH), now Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt, to conceal the identity of three Very Important Personalities (VIPs)who died of suspected coronavirus within five days.
The facility, one of the
isolation centres equipped by Governor Nyesom Wike, now appears as the
preferred destination for VIP cases in Rivers.
On May 25, news filtered in
that Amaehwule Anele, Director of Treasury at the State Ministry
Finance, had died of the pandemic at the place.
Three days after, Acting
Executive Director, Finance and Administration (EDFA), Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Ibanga Etang, and Chairman, Asari
Toru Local Government, Odiari Princewill, who were both announced dead,
were also said to have been patients at same Covid-19 facility.
Princewill was buried in the
Port Harcourt cemetery almost immediately by health officials fully clad
in Covid-19 PPEs under supervision of the state Health Commissioner,
Dr. Princewill Chike.
Test result for the NDDC EDFA turned out negative the day after he had died.
Gloom, however, hovered on the
suddenness in the case of the NDDC EDFA where the rumour mill buzzed on
alleged extraneous premeditated causes due to the external and internal
heat the commission’s Interim Management Committee faces.
The development at the RSUTH
facility also bared frustrations of medical staff members who had to use
a proxy to protest unavoidable risks of infection they were being
subjected, due to alleged unsafe actions of the authorities at the
hospital.