Beady Nnanna, a producer and publisher, tells AYOOLA OLASUPO how her sister, Blessing Okolie, lost her life due to medical negligence by a doctor, who allegedly left a pair of scissors in her stomach during fibroid surgery at a private hospital in Lagos State
Tell us about yourself.
I’m a media personality, the producer of Beadysworld TV and publisher of Beadysworld Blog News. I’m also an influencer and social activist.
What is your relationship with the late Blessing Okolie?
She was my sister.
How old was she?
She was 44 years old.
What led to her initial visit to the hospital?
She had a fibroid, and it was very big, as if she was pregnant. Even when people saw her, they mistook her for being pregnant. That fibroid was really disturbing, and she was married.
But the husband left her because of that fibroid. She couldn’t give birth to a child. So, the last time the mother tried to call the man to know why they were having issues, the man said to her, “You know that your daughter has a problem with fibroids.”
He said it as if having a fibroid had become a crime. For almost two years, the husband did not show any concern, so the situation got her worried, and she really wanted to remove the fibroid to see if she could have a child.
In December 2025, we took her to the Air Force Base Hospital, but she declined. She said she didn’t want to go there and that she wanted to go to a particular hospital at Igoke Estate, around Abule Egba, Lagos State.
I asked her why she wanted to go there because I felt that the hospital was not standard enough, but she said the hospital was good and that someone who had done the surgery there before recommended the place to her.
I objected to her idea because I just couldn’t understand why she would leave a good hospital for a non-standard one.
What happened at the hospital?
On March 27, 2026, she came to my house, and we drove to the hospital. Meanwhile, that was the first time I would visit that medical centre. We saw the doctor standing outside, but I was not happy, and I was not satisfied with what I saw there.
Blessing kept telling me that I should not bother myself and that the doctor was good. After a while, they gave us a ward where we slept till the next morning.
What were you not satisfied with about the hospital in the first instance?
The hospital was not standard. Looking at everything there, it didn’t look standard at all. So, on March 28, very early in the morning, they came to call her that it was time for her to enter the theatre.
Then she went there at exactly 7:22 am, and we were there till 11:49 am. She had the surgery, and it was okay, and they brought her outside the theatre, where there was a bench, and they laid her there.
She was there, and she didn’t even notice anything. I was the one who cleaned her mouth because she was already tired. When I asked the doctor what was wrong, he said she would come up and that I should keep calling her name.
So, if I called Blessing, she would respond by opening her eyes slightly, but she was not talking. We were there for about four to five hours, and they said they wanted to give her tea and milk to drink, but I objected.
I challenged them on how they would give tea and milk to someone who had just had that kind of surgery. The lady called Oloma, whom she said introduced her to the hospital, said they also gave her the same tea when she had her surgery, but I insisted.
I then said that if they needed to give her anything, they should give her Lipton and hot water instead. They said she needed the energy to climb up the staircase because their theatre was downstairs, while the ward was upstairs.
What happened thereafter?
The nurse and the other lady, Oloma, took Blessing out of the theatre and gave her the tea. So, I requested that they let her rest very well. After a while, around 8:30 am, they came back and said they wanted to take her upstairs.
I was surprised that they could allow someone who had just had surgery to walk. Normally, she was in pain because it is a normal thing for somebody who has just gone through surgery to feel pain.
At what point did you begin to sense that something was seriously wrong after the surgery?
On Sunday, Blessing started talking, and people came to visit her. On Monday, she was still talking, but she was complaining of a particular pain in her abdomen, and by Tuesday, things had changed.
On Wednesday, her stomach started swelling up. I called the doctor and asked what the problem was, but he said there was nothing. I refused to listen to him and insisted that something was wrong because her stomach had swollen.
So, I asked that we do a scan to find out why the stomach was swollen, but the doctor insisted that there was no problem. They gave her an injection and set a drip for her.
Yet, on Wednesday and Thursday, the stomach was still swelling, and I kept clamouring that we should do a scan. But they said there was nothing in her stomach and accused me of trying to teach them their job.
Then they said what if they did the scan and nothing was there? I responded that I just needed to be sure because I was not satisfied with the way her stomach was swelling. I was bothered because of that.
How did you discover that there was a pair of scissors inside her stomach?
I never thought of scissors when she was complaining about that pain in the side of the stomach. I was even thinking that they had harvested one of her organs, so I kept begging for a scan, but they refused.
She had the surgery on Saturday, and almost a week after the surgery, she was still in serious pain. They then brought out a pipe, put it in her nose, and started draining something greenish out of her stomach.
I said, “Doctor, let’s have a scan.” But they kept saying, “What is wrong with this woman? Do you want to teach us our job?” I told them that I just wanted to be sure that nothing was wrong. Blessing’s health worsened to the point that she couldn’t even stand up.
At one point, they said we should stop giving her anything. We even stopped giving her water, and she was there without water or anything. That was for ten days after the surgery.
So, a new doctor came there to see her, and it was the first time I saw him. He asked me questions, and I started explaining to him. That was when I realised that those people did not even have products for patients.
After I explained to the doctor that I had been asking for a scan to be done for over a week, he said they should get the scans done on her. That was how they gave me a letter to go do the scans elsewhere.
When I got to the lab where they asked me to go, I was told that they had not been doing it for over two years. So, the nurse who came with me said we should go back.
I was angry and didn’t know when I said, “Are you mad? Go back to where when I came out of this hospital without a scan?” We then went to Clinix, where we did the scan.
What did the scan detect?
They did the scan and gave it to me. We paid over N90,000 for it. When I read the result, it stated that a metal was inside her stomach below her abdomen.
At that moment, I cried and drove Blessing back to the hospital. One of the people who did the scan asked me to take her back because her condition had already worsened.
How did the doctor react at the hospital when you showed them the result of the scan?
They were ashamed of themselves. I could see the surprise and shame all over them, but I didn’t say anything.
What explanation did they give for the medical error after seeing the result from the scan?
They did not say anything, and I was just looking at them. I could have escalated it to their management, but the owner of the hospital was not around. The only doctor around was the one I gave the result to.
Then they came to her ward and said they needed to wheel her into the theatre again. I asked them why, and they said they needed to open the surgery again. That was someone who had not taken water or food for over five days, and she was already weak.
Then I asked why they didn’t refer us to a big hospital like Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre, or Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. But they said no and that she would be fine.
Then she was wheeled into the theatre for the second time, but I wasn’t even sure she could withstand it because she was already weak.
Was she placed on oxygen?
On April 7, they wheeled her into the theatre again, and the surgery was carried out, and they said they had removed what was in her belly.
Hearing that, I expected that there should be a difference and her health should improve, but on April 8, there was still no difference, and she was still the same. I said again that they should refer us to another big hospital, but they kept saying that she would be fine.
At that point, I was very worried because the green substance was still coming from her belly. The next day, she deteriorated, and they put her on oxygen. I kept telling them to refer us because I saw that they could not handle it, and any time I said that, they would make me feel like I was being troublesome.
I asked one of the doctors, who said she would get better, but her intestines were weak. I shouted because her intestines became weak because of the scissors that were left in her stomach for 10 days.
On Friday, I was already weak, so I decided to go home. When I told Blessing that I was going home to freshen up, she begged me not to leave her, but I promised her that I would return.
So, I went home and got back to the hospital around 11 pm. When I saw her, I knew she was not herself, and I called the hospital staff. But I found out that they didn’t even know what to do.
They were always trying to manage things, so they went to bring oxygen for her again. Immediately she was placed on oxygen, the light went off.
I asked them to turn on the generator, and they said they didn’t have fuel. I became uncomfortable and started shouting because it was a few minutes before 3 am. I thought they were going to leave her till daybreak.
Then I threatened them that I would burn down the hospital if they didn’t take my sister out of there. That was when they gave me a letter around 3 am. I told the doctor to follow us, but he refused, saying he could only follow if it was an emergency.
I asked, “Is this not an emergency? Are you not supposed to give us an ambulance and a doctor or a nurse to hand us over?”
But the doctor said no and that maybe a nurse would go with us. Then they called Mr Abiodun, the owner, who told the nurse not to follow us. The doctor on duty also told the nurse to remove the drip.
I was so angry, so I beat the nurse out of the car. When the doctor came, I confronted him and asked why they wanted to remove the drip at that hour.
After the altercation, they left my car, and I carried my sister with no medical support around Abule Egba and went to LASUTH. When we got there, they said there was no space. I begged them to treat her in my car, but they refused.
Then I started making calls, and someone hinted that we should take her to the O&G Medical Emergency at LASUTH, so they started treating her.
They attended to her, but bureaucracy and protocols affected us. They began treatment a few minutes to 4 am and said she would be admitted to the ICU.
How much did you pay at the hospital?
We paid N1.2m, aside from over N1m spent on drugs and tests. At the first hospital, we also spent a lot.
For injections and tablets, there was one we bought for N27,000, and we bought five or six at a time. They charged N650,000 for the surgery.
That Sunday, we bought drugs of N180,000 each and another of N250,000. But early the next morning, they called us and said her heart had stopped.
They said they tried to revive her, but she passed. I begged them to resuscitate her again, but they couldn’t. That was how my sister died.
Looking back, what do you think could have been done differently to save Blessing?
If they had done a scan the second day after the surgery, they would have detected the object earlier, and she might have survived. But most of her organs were already infected before the scissors were removed.
Has she been buried?
No, she is still in the mortuary.
SOURCE:PUNCH
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