Exactly 11 days after Saturday Sun published the story entitled, Battered woman turns hospital prisoner, respite came the way of Mrs Mercy Nnadi, the housewife, whose husband killed their only son and inflicted horrible wounds on her with hot pressing iron and screwdriver.
On Tuesday, July 17, 2012, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, through the state Ministry of Women Affairs, sent a delegation to New Evolution Hospital in Okota, Lagos, to present a cheque of N803,500 to the management of the hospital to offset Mrs Nnadi’s treatment bill and subsequently transferred her to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, for further treatment.
In what looked like an emergency, a Lagos State government Mercedes Benz ambulance bus manoeuvred through the traffic on Ago palace way, which is undergoing a major reconstruction, and stopped in front of the hospital at exactly 1:27pm.
And in a commando style, the occupants of the ambulance alighted and headed for the first floor of the two-storey building, which houses the hospital, to meet with its management. In the flurry of these fast tempo activities, Saturday Sun hastened to speak with the head of the delegation to ascertain what was in the offing, and the government official, who pleaded anonymity, said: “We are from the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs.
We were specifically sent by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulure to foot the hospital bill of Mrs Mercy Nnadi and subsequently transfer her to LASUTH for further medical attention. We are here with a cheque to clear her bills.” Among the stream of people at the hospital’s reception, was Mr Nnadi, the father in-law to Mercy.
He was there with one of his daughters. Mr Nnadi is the 65-year-old man, whose son, Henry, accused of sleeping with his wife (Henry’s wife), Mercy, which prompted him (Henry) to wreak the havoc on the night of Easter Sunday this year. Others on the delegation train were a team of medical personnel from the Lagos State government, a representative of Centre for Organisational Development (COD) – a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and members of the media.
On realising that this reporter came from The Sun newspapers, the representative of COD approached him and introduced herself as Mrs Nelly Okubuiro. “I am the programme assistant/admin officer of COD. We read your report of Saturday, July 7 on this matter and we are happy that we all have come this far. My boss travelled to the United States of America and I am here to represent our organisation,” she said.
It would be recalled that Saturday Sun, in its July 7 edition, reported how Mercy Nnadi was held in a private hospital because her hospital bill was not paid, while the hospital management, the collaborating NGOs that are assisting the patient and the family, engaged in a war of words over who should foot the N1.3million bill which the hospital presented after treating Mercy for two months.
And exactly 11 days after the said publication was out, the Lagos State government came to the rescue of the patient. However, as the crew from the Lagos State government and others sat to discuss with Dr Benjamin Eze, one of the directors of the hospital, in his office, the expected release of Mrs Nnadi from the hospital did not eventually come easy, as argument and counter argument rent the air. “I am from the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs,” the government official told the doctor after she had introduced herself. “We are here in respect of Mrs Mercy Nnadi.
The deputy governor of Lagos State specifically directed me to come and present a cheque of N803,500:00 to your hospital for treating Mrs Nnadi. I was also asked to get her discharged and be transferred to a government hospital for further medical attention,” she added. “Madam, you are welcome. I appreciate your concern and that of the Lagos State government, but madam, this is not how things are done,” Dr Eze replied. “I don’t understand what you mean,” the government official retorted. “Have you people seen the patient to know how she is doing?” the doctor asked.
“We have not seen her,” replied the official. “Oh! You better do,” the doctor advised. Immediately, the matron of the hospital, who was also in the meeting, led the crew to the room where Mercy was. In the room, Mercy, who was sitting on a bed and was wearing only a skirt in order to show her body clearly, greeted her visitors.
After acknowledging pleasantries and the people appreciating the improvement in her condition, the crew went back to the doctor’s office to continue the discussion. When the government official asked Dr Eze to explain to her where she had gone wrong as he earlier stated, the doctor replied: “Nobody informed me that you people were coming to foot Mercy’s bill, so that we would have prepared a comprehensive bill.
Now, you are talking of presenting a cheque of N803,500:00 to the hospital and requesting that we should discharge Mercy. “Mind you, the amount on the cheque you are talking about covers only the balance of the bill we gave after Mercy had stayed here for one month, and from April 8, when she was admitted in the hospital and today (July 17), three months have passed. Madam, if someone had informed the hospital that you people would be coming, we would have prepared an up-to-date bill.
Now, if I collect your cheque of N803,500:00, which, of course, is not the total bill and release the patient to you, how would the hospital recover the balance?” he asked. “Doctor Eze!” the government official exclaimed, “I am not here to calculate your bills for you. I am here on behalf of the Lagos State government and my office is acting based on the letter we received from the NGOs that are working to save the life of Mrs Nnadi. No matter the amount of money you may quote now as your bill, probably in excess of what I have in this cheque, I cannot augment it.
I would rather advise you to collect the cheque I have here and thereafter, go through the proper channel to get your balance,” she suggested. “I don’t understand what you mean by proper channel in this matter,” the doctor argued. “That is why we advise managers to enrol for management courses and I advise you to go for one, because if you had done that, you would understand me clearly,” she said. “I think you should educate me on that,” Dr Eze requested.
“You should not tell me that if you are looking for a contract from the government that you wouldn’t know the proper thing to do,” she said. “But I am not talking about government contract here. I am rather talking about how to get our full payment for treating Mrs Nnadi of more than a three-degree burn she suffered. So, my question is, if I collect the cheque you are giving to me now, how would the hospital get the balance? This is a private hospital and we run it with our funds. We are not a charity,” the doctor emphasised.
At this point, the phone of the government official rang. She looked at the screen and exclaimed: “Oh, my boss is calling.” She began to discuss with the caller in Yoruba language. After talking on the phone for a while, the officer handed the handset over to Dr Eze, who tried to explain to the caller the difficulties he was having in accepting to release Mrs Nnadi. He was still on phone when the state officer collected her phone back and went outside to complete her discussion with her boss, as she revealed.
At this point, the atmosphere in the room, which had all along been tense, exploded, with the representative of COD, the Nnadis, the hospital’s matron and other interested parties raining accusations on whoever one felt the bullet should be targeted at. In the melee, the hospital management accused the Nnadis, NGOs and the representatives of the state government of not informing them about their coming so that they could have prepared fully for them.
The COD representative stated that immediately the letter they sent to the government, asking for assistance on behalf of Mercy was approved, and were informed that government officials would come to pay off Mercy’s bill and get her transferred to a government hospital, they told the Nnadis to inform the hospital about the development. But the Nnadis claimed that they could not pass the message across to the hospital management because it had earlier banned them from visiting Mercy.
In a quick reply, the matron denied banning the Nnadis from visiting Mercy, but revealed what has remained a ‘top secret’, at least, to Mercy. According to her, “Mercy is not yet aware that her (only) son (Ebuka) was killed by her husband the same night he battered her in April. Because of her critical condition, we have kept that secret from her so that she would not relapse to her former bad condition if she gets to understand that her son is dead.
Any time she inquired about her child, we had lied to her that her son was receiving treatment at the general hospital. We would tell her that when she gets better, we would take her to her son. “While we have been waiting for a suitable time to break the sad news to her, we tried to be mindful of the people who come to see her. We wouldn’t allow anybody that would break the bad news to her, considering her psychological state. That was why we tried to restrict the number of people that came to visit her.
But, of course, it couldn’t have been members of her family,” she explained. An obviously annoyed Mrs Nelly Okubuiro of COD said the hospital management did not believe that they, as NGOs, were doing something positive towards alleviating Mercy’s cause. But she thanked God that with the effort of her director, Mrs Celina Nkiru Okoro and the other collaborating NGOs – Project Alert and the American-based Zahara Women, their prayer has been answered and their efforts blessed with the Lagos State government coming in to offset Mercy’s bill and getting her transferred to a government hospital. Meanwhile, when the government official returned after discussing with her caller, she persuaded Dr Eze to accept the cheque she brought or she would go back to Alausa with it. She repeated that it would pay the hospital to collect the cheque and thereafter, “go through the proper channel” to get its balance.
At this point, she squealed that the doctor should write a letter after calculating his bill and pass it to the appropriate quarters. She added that a process was followed before the cheque she came to present was raised and, therefore, advised the doctor to follow the same process and pursue his balance. The matron queried how genuine the cheque that was to be presented to the doctor was, demanding that it should be certified before they would accept it.
The government representative looked at her and said: “If not for any other thing madam, please try and respect the Lagos State government, which I am representing here.” At this point, Dr Eze demanded to have the cheque, but another scene of the drama ensued. The government officer demanded that Dr Eze should write a discharge letter for Mercy, indicating that he has released her from his hospital.
The doctor, however, hesitated for a while. But the officer reminded him that he should document their agreement. The doctor obliged, wrote the letter and handed it over to her. Then, the medical team in the government crew demanded that a referral letter to a burn surgeon at LASUTH should also accompany the discharge letter.
Dr Eze also drafted the letter. At that juncture, the leader of the delegation presented the cheque to Dr Eze while standing. Dr Eze, who was also standing replied: “Thank you madam. On behalf of New Evolution Hospital, I appreciate the efforts of the Lagos State government and the concern of the deputy governor in this matter. Extend our appreciation to Her Excellency.
We also thank everyone that has, in one way or the other, contributed to the wellbeing of Mrs Nnadi. “However, what I have just received is not our total cost for treating Mrs Nnadi and how to go about getting our balance is still vague to me.” Soon after, Mercy was dressed up. With her belongings packed in two medium-sized bags, the team headed for the ambulance downstairs.
While walking down the staircase, Saturday Sun quickly cornered Mercy and asked her: “How do you feel going out of this hospital today?” The patient, who upon wearing a light clothe, still covered herself from neck down with a piece of wrapper, paused for a while and replied: “I am happy.” “Where are they taking you to?” the reporter asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “So, how do you feel about it?” Saturday Sun asked. “I feel happy,” she replied. “What would you tell all these people that are working hard to ensure that you recover fully?” “I thank all of them. God will pay them back. He will reward them. He will bless them,” this was Mercy’s last statement to Saturday Sun before she boarded the ambulance after a show that was almost attracting a crowd of spectators from the nearby Century Market in Ago, Okota, before the ambulance, now with its siren blasting, drove away from the scene at exactly 2:56pm.
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