25 ICU NURSES GO ON COMPULSORY ISOLATION AS PATIENT TESTS POSITIVE TO COVID 19 IN THE ICU UCH.

The management of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, has asked twenty-five (25) nurses working in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital to go into compulsory isolation as the result for COVID 19 test for a patient came out to be POSITIVE.

This 62-year old patient, a retired consultant Radiologist in Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, was admitted in the private suites of the University College Hospital on account of Cancer of the prostate. He was said to reside in Lagos, with a travel history to the UK in December, 2019. 

The surgery was performed to remove the prostate cancer (Radical Prostatectomy) in UCH on the 14th April, 2020.

He suddenly developed respiratory distress in the private suites few days after the surgery. After investigations, he was diagnosed of a background Eventeration of the left diaphragm, which necessitated another surgery (Splenectomy and diaphragmatic herniorrhaphy). So he was moved from the operating theatre into the Intensive Care Unit at 8:40pm on the 21st April. 2020.

All these while, no test was conducted to confirm the COVID 19 status of this patient. On getting to the ICU, the report reached the COVID 19 taskforce in Oyo State, who immediately came to take the sample of patient for COVID 19 test. Alas, the test came out to be POSITIVE yesterday (23rd April, 2020).

Meanwhile, the ICU nurses and doctors who have no full PPEs to protect themselves, have been unduly exposed to the patient. It was after the result came out positive that PPEs were supplied to the unit. Medicine after death, you say? 

Report reaching us this morning has it that the patient is still in the ICU and has not been moved to the Infectious Disease Unit (IDU) of the hospital or any of the isolation centers in the state. The ICU itself is not in good shape as fans are actively at work, because the air conditioners have gone on vacation.

All the nurses and Doctors that had direct contact with the patient have been asked to go on isolation with immediate effect. 

What now becomes of their families and loved ones? 

What about the several people (especially their colleagues at work) they have had contact with?

What is the government and the hospital management doing to safeguard the health and well-being of the frontline health workers in this period of pandemic? 

What is the way forward?

Why wasn’t the test conducted before admitting the patient,despite the travel history to the UK, and the fact that patient resides in Lagos?

Why can’t this patient be managed in Lagos State? How did the patient get to Ibadan, in this period of lockdown?

Are there no well-equipped health facilities in Lagos State to handle the patient’s case?

Why? Why? Why?