A power outage and generator failure during surgery at Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital in Minna, Niger State, have tragically resulted in the death of a woman.
Her husband, UB Shehu, shared the heartbreaking account on Facebook, detailing the prolonged delays and technical problems that disrupted the operation.
Shehu explained that 35 minutes into his wife’s surgery, the hospital experienced a power outage.
“35 minutes into my wife’s operation, Abuja Electricity Company (AEDC) commonly known as NEPA took light, and no fuel in the theatre Gen, at Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital,” he wrote.
Despite waiting outside the operating theatre for about 11 hours—from 8:44 a.m. to 7 p.m.—he remained optimistic about a positive outcome. However, the experience turned devastating when the delays stretched on.
“Minutes later, they brought the fuel after pouring it in the Gen, it had refused to start, they had to look for a mechanic. My wife was still inside the theatre,” Shehu said.
A technician who had been called to fix the hospital’s generator had to go to Ogbomosho in Minna to purchase necessary parts.
Power was restored an hour later, but the mechanic was still working on the generator. As a result, the operation, initially expected to take less than 90 minutes, was prolonged.
“Operation that wasn’t going to last for 90 minutes had taken from 4 pm to 7 pm,” Shehu explained.
Despite the extended delays, Shehu was informed by one of the nurses that the hospital had an alternative light source for such situations.
“One of the nurses told me that I should not worry if the operation has continued even without light, they had an alternative (lamp or torch light) as usual,” he added.
Shehu ended his post by clarifying that his intention was not to blame anyone but rather to raise awareness about the issue to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
“The narrator is not to target anybody, just to save lives and to avoid future occurrences,” he wrote. “I had reported my case to Almighty Allah already.”
Attempts by SaharaReporters to reach Shehu for comment were unsuccessful, as his phone was switched off at the time of filing this report.
SaharaReporters’ attempts to contact Dr. Bello Tukur, the Niger State Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Healthcare, for a comment on the matter were unsuccessful, as both calls and text messages were not responded to.
Meanwhile, SaharaReporters reported in December 2024 how a three-day power outage at Minna General Hospital plunged patients into darkness and caused heartbreaking losses, raising serious concerns about the state of public healthcare facilities in Nigeria.
In a video shared by a human rights radio programme and obtained by SaharaReporters, some newborn babies were seen crying in the darkness due to a power outage at the hospital.
SaharaReporters gathered that the issue stemmed from the prepaid meter running out of credit, leaving the hospital without electricity for three days.
“We lost about six of these children last time when the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) went on strike as a result of power failure,” a source told this newspaper, describing the life-threatening consequences of power interruptions.
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