Senior doctor dies in Lagos shortly after attending to patient

A Lagos-based senior doctor has died shortly after attending to a patient.

Close relations blamed the death of Dr Akingbade of Veritas Clinics Limited, College Road, Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos on stress, but nonetheless said he had a history of hypertension.

The deceased worked at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for 15 years before retiring as a Senior Medical Officer in 2004, after which he set up his private clinic.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the senior doctor suddenly died in his office in the clinic, after attending to the patient.

One of the nurses on duty at Veritas Clinics Limited on the fateful day, Mrs Toyin Ifesan, narrated: “Our boss died at about 10.30pm shortly after he had closed for consultation.

He went to see a patient on admission. Thereafter, he retired to his office and sat down. A nurse later went in there to ask him to go upstairs, where we have sleeping facilities, to sleep, having been working since morning.

“On getting to the office, the nurse spoke to him but she got no response. She then pushed him, only to find that Dr Akingbade had passed on. The situation attracted everybody in the clinic”.

Nurse Ifesan went on: “He was not sick before death. The only thing we noticed was that, on that day, he was not jovial as he used to be. Unlike him, he talked to the staff without looking at their faces. He looked at the floor while talking to the staff.”

Saying Akingbade was well liked by his staff and patients, the nurse stated: “Our late boss was a very jovial person. He joked a lot with the staff as well as with patients before attending to them. He would ask the patient where he came from, and when he told the place the patient came from, always had one or two things to say about the patients place and people.

“He was a problem solver when it came to illnesses. If you cry to his office, you will smile coming out.

“He hardly attended social functions because of the fear that a critically ill patient that may be bought to his clinic may die before returning. So, he was always in the clinic most of the time.

“Even anytime he hired a doctor to help attend to patients, most of patients still preferred his consultation because of his wide experience. Some would wait, no matter how long, to see him. Others would go and come back.”

Another nurse at Veritas, Patricia Nwabusi, described Dr Akingbade as a father to everybody, but added: “Daddy always said he would not like the type of old age that would warrant wearing diaper or to be carried from hospital to hospital for treatment.”

The last born of the deceased, Akinola Akingbade, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said his father was committed to his work and always ready to sacrifice whatever he could to help patients recover from ailments.

“He didn’t like people suffering in avoidable situation,”the son said.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that his colleagues at LASUTH include Doctors Oshinuga, Wilberforce Aina, Oluseye, Amosu, Adeyemi, Ibirogba and Udofia.

Akingbade would be buried on January 7 after a funeral service at the City of the Lord Church, Ifako-Ijaiye.