A faulty elevator at the staff quarters of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos, has claimed the life of a medical doctor, Vware Diaso, who was working at the facility.

The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday evening when the deceased, who lived on the 9th floor of the building, wanted to meet a dispatch rider who had brought her the food she earlier ordered online.

The deceased, a graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, was said to be undergoing her mandatory one-year internship programme at the hospital and had less than two weeks to complete the programme when tragedy struck.

A colleague of the deceased, who does not want to be quoted, told PREMIUM TIMES that the incident occurred at about 7:10 p.m.

The source said the incident happened a few minutes after using the elevator.

Meanwhile, the deceased’s colleagues at the facility on Wednesday protested the unfortunate incident, accusing the hospital management of ignoring earlier complaints about the faulty elevator.

But the wife of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, also a medical doctor, has visited the hospital to sympathise with the health workers.

This is as the Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University, Ademola Tayo, has expressed “utter shock at the news.

Many Nigerians have, however, descended heavily on the management of the hospital and the Lagos State Government by extension. They said the hospital management had ignored calls to repair the elevator.

Sources said the elevator had been faulty for over three years, and the management took no concrete action to repair it.

How accident happened

The witness who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES said Ms Diaso, who stayed on the 9th floor of the building, was going to meet a dispatch rider to get the food she had ordered.

“I also used the elevator to the third floor before it went to pick her up. When I used it, it was making some kind of funny noise, I alighted, and a few minutes later, I could hear a sound on top of the elevator. Not long, I heard the sound of the elevator crashing down while she was in it.

“She ordered food, and she wanted to go downstairs to pick it up, but unfortunately, the elevator lost control,” the source said.

The source added that Ms Diaso was inside the elevator for close to an hour before she was rushed to the hospital’s surgical emergency unit, where she eventually died.

The source said: “The elevator had fallen into the ground, making it difficult to rescue her on time. While we were trying to open the elevator, she was still talking, even as she cried for help.

“She was rushed to the surgical emergency, where they tried to resuscitate her, but after a while, we saw that they were doing Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before she died.”

Condemnation
Many Nigerians took to social media to lament the unfortunate incident, blaming the government and the hospital management for what they described as “insensitivity and widespread corruption.”

On the microblogging site Twitter, which has now been renamed “X”, commentators shared their experiences using the elevator, saying their efforts to call the attention of the management of the hospital to the faulty elevator proved abortive.

An X user, Olanrewaju Aiyepola, posted: “(I am) particularly aggrieved because we’ve complained for a long time about this elevator. We’ve manoeuvred, managed, and prayed each time we had to use it. Empty promises will (would) be made to fix it….till it killed one of us.

“Everyone responsible either directly or indirectly must be held accountable.”

Kiky Festus also posted: “I’m so angry cause they have been complaining about this elevator for years. Even when I go visit my friend, more than two people can’t go in it, and if it stops at the 6th floor, you have to use your hands to close it yourself and step back behind a line for your weight.”

Hospital management keeps mum
Meanwhile, when contacted on Wednesday, the Managing Director of the hospital, Abiola Mafe, confirmed the incident to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mrs Mafe, however, said she could not speak on the matter at the time, claiming she was in a meeting.

Though she promised to call the reporter back, she was yet to do so when filing this report. The reporter’s calls to her telephone lines were also not answered.

But in a video clip obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the governor’s wife, Mrs Sanwo-Olu, who was also a medical employee of the state government until her husband became a governor, appealed for calm.

She said as a mother, she could understand the pain of losing a child and pleaded for understanding with the angry health workers.

Babcock University mourns
In a terse message shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday by the management of Babcock University, its Vice-Chancellor, Mr Tayo, a professor, sympathised with the family, friends and associates of the deceased.

The statement was shared by the institution’s Director of Communications and Marketing, Joshua Suleiman.

It reads: “The VC with the university community expressed utter shock and disbelief at the news. The VC, in his fatherly manner, has discussed with his team members to send a formidable delegation to the family on a condolence visit. We are making efforts at the moment to first establish contact with the family.”

By Mariam Ileyemi

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