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By Lukman Olabiyi
Two employees of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDCNL), who are husband and wife, Emeka and Stella Okoli, have slammed N50 billion suit on their employer and others before the Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt, over alleged medical negligence. Others joined as respondents in the suit are two medical doctors of Shell, Dr. Alexander Dimoko and Dr. Dafe Akpoduado, who performed an appendectomy surgery on the Okoli’s son, Master Chinazam Okoli, sometime in September, 2016.
The suit with number PHC/2338/2021 was filed on August 30, 2021, by Professor Akin Ibidapo-Obe as Counsel to the claimants, Master Okoli and his parents, and will come up for hearing before Justice Weli Chechey of the court on December 8, 2021.
The claimants, in their 55 paragraph statement of claims, alleged serial acts of negligence by Shell Hospital in Port Harcourt, which began with the decision to operate without conducting necessary and appropriate scientific enquiries.
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The claimants also alleged that a procedure that the doctors claimed would take 45 minutes extended to five hours at the end of which their son was wheeled out unconscious and suffering severe seizures.
Whilst Shell doctors claimed the outcome was a result of drug reaction, qualified specialists in South Africa and the United States have confirmed hypoxia caused by lack of oxygen to the brain during surgery.
The claimants alleged that Dr. Dafe Akpoduado, the anaesthetist, administered spinal instead of general anaesthesia, which ultimately caused Chinazam’s brain damage.
The parents claimed that their son, aged 15, could not independently perform any activity of daily living-walk, talk, eat, sit or case himself.
