By Chioma Obinna The family of the late Dr Emeka Chugbo who died from coronavirus has cried out over what the family described as ‘misinfo...
By Chioma Obinna
The family of the late Dr Emeka Chugbo who died from coronavirus has cried out over what the family described as ‘misinformation and fabrications’ regarding the circumstances of his death.
A statement signed by the mother of the late doctor, Mrs Nwachi Chugbo noted that her son who died on April 15, 2020 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, contracted the disease while he was innocently attending to a patient with gynaecology-related issues unknown to him that the patient had coronavirus.
According to the family, “before he was admitted at LUTH, from the information we gathered, Dr. Chugbo developed COVID-19 complications after being previously invited by a colleague to attend to a patient in distress with gynaecology-related issues at a missionary health facility in Lagos, where he used to offer free consulting services. So, contrary to some false statements making the rounds, Dr. Chugbo neither intentionally admitted a known COVID-19 patient nor treated the patient for COVID-19 when he contracted the infection. He was innocently assisting the patient, with her COVID-19 infectivity unknown to him.
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“It should be made clear that once Dr. Chugbo himself started showing symptoms of COVID-19, he contacted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) immediately. But when NCDC was not responding timely to his call, he walked into LUTH and was admitted because of his identity.
“Our son, Dr. Emeka Chugbo, was an unlucky victim of the current pandemic and the lack of adequate equipment to support his treatment did not help his case.”
The family which said that the statement was to correct some wrong information and false impressions being circulated to the public on their late son, explained that the late doctor never had any pre-existing condition or medical history of asthma, going by their intimate family knowledge of him from childhood to adulthood, and LUTH never issued any public statement as being circulated on a pre-existing health condition of Dr. Chugbo.
The statement further said the true age of Dr. Chugbo at the time of his death was 51 years, not 60 years as claimed by distortion purveyors as he was born on June 16, 1968, at LUTH.
“As a professional, late Chugbo was an ethical, qualified, brilliant, competent and experienced medical doctor who qualified as a Specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the mid-90s at the prestigious LUTH before he went into private practice.
“As a family man, he was a loving husband to his expectant lawyer wife and a doting father to his four years old daughter. Even more, he was a selfless and compassionate person who routinely provided pro-bono, missionary medical care for needy people, having been influenced by his humble Catholic background and a pharmacist father. Surely, such a kind soul does not deserve his memories being tainted with toxic distortion of facts,” the family said.
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