The environs of Ajao Estate in the Isolo area of Lagos State have been thrown into mourning following the death of a mother of four, Mrs Chibuzor Balogun.
According to the 14-year-old son of the deceased, his mother died a little above 30 years at their residence, No. 2 Raji Aliu Street, off the Airport Road, Ajao Estate, last Wednesday.
Uche noted that his mother had been complaining of the general weakness of the body for some days which was not taken seriously by family members.
He further stated that Chibuzor started excreting loose stool and vomiting and this caught their attention.
Uche claimed that his father, Isiaka Balogun, popularly known as Gaddafi, rushed his mother to a clinic, where she was attended to and later discharged.
The deceased son claimed that her condition got worse when they got back home, he added that before they could get a vehicle to convey her to hospital, she died.
Uche said, “She told me that she was vomiting in the morning after I left for school. When I returned from school in the afternoon, I met her in bed; she looked pale. She told me that she had been excreting loose stool and vomiting. I asked my dad to take her to hospital. And when he took her to hospital, they gave her an injection and he brought her back home.”
“She was still experiencing pains as was excreting and vomiting after returning from the hospital. I had to get her 7Up and added some salt to it and gave her to drink to see if it could give her strength since the doctor said it was cholera.”
“My dad had to take her to the same hospital but they rejected her. We had to rush her to the General Hospital, Isolo, and when we got there, the doctor examined her and told us that she couldn’t make it. One of our family friends and I had to return home, leaving my father behind.”
Uche noted that in the afternoon that he received a call about his father’s health and he went to the hospital with his relatives and friends.
He stated that they tried to ensure that his father was admitted to the general hospital but he was rejected by doctors and nurses there.
As a result, they moved him to the Jericho Hospital in Mafoluku, where he was admitted.
Uche added, “He was on the second drip when I noticed that the drip had stopped and he began to breathe heavily.”
“Out of apprehension, I called the doctor, who pushed me out of the room and asked me to stay outside.”
“Due to their delay in coming out, I went inside to check what had happened. When I asked the doctor again if my dad was breathing, he told me that he couldn’t make it.”
“Now we don’t have a mother and a father. We are four boys – the youngest is two, while I am 14. How am I going to take care of these ones?”
“This house, which was my grandfather’s house, had been sold. I learnt that my father used part of the money he realised from the sale of this place to build a house at the tollgate area. I don’t know the area. I only know that he did not complete the house; only one part of it has been roofed as I was told.”
The Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said Chibuzor died of malaria and typhoid, while the diabetic husband died of shock following his wife’s death.