50-year-old dementia patient disappears from Lagos psychiatric hospital

 

A 50-year-old woman, Isioma Iyele, has disappeared from the Yaba Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, in the Yaba area of Lagos State.

The children of the woman, who was suffering from dementia took her to the hospital to see a specialist for treatment. After which two psychiatrists reportedly assessed her condition, and drugs were prescribed for her.

According to PUNCH, one of the sons of the victim who accompanied her to the hospital then left her at the counter to pay for the drugs.

Another son of the missing woman, Kuthumi, in a video clip posted online, lamented that his brother could not locate their mother after paying for the drugs.

He said, “My mum has dementia and I have been working tirelessly to earn enough to admit her to Yaba Psychiatric Hospital. So, she has been at home and I have been taking care of her as much as we could.

“On Friday, my brother took my mum to Yaba Psychiatric Hospital. He got there by 8am and they saw two psychiatrists who examined my mum and by 4pm, some drugs were prescribed for her that my brother went to get. He was told to pay for the drugs at a building in the same Yaba Psychiatric Hospital.

“Then, he left my mum at the counter to pay for the drugs. After he paid for the drugs, he went back to the counter and couldn’t find my mum. He started running around the hospital, asking people that were there that he was looking for his mum and nobody paid attention to him.”

Kuthumi wondered how his mother could go missing in a government hospital.

He added, “They have CCTV there and we asked if we could see the footage to know exactly what happened.

“It is Yaba left; are they selling human beings? Have they sold my mum? For two days now, I have not seen my mum, I don’t know what my mum is eating.

“They said we needed some pictures to paste at the gate which we printed and took there. One chief nurse came out and said they would use police to arrest us.”

The case was said to have been reported at the Sabo Police Station.

The Managing Director, Yaba Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Olugbenga Owoeye, said a committee had been set up to look into the matter.

He said, “The woman was in around 4pm; our structure requires that a younger doctor will, first of all, see the patient and then a senior registrar will see the patient again. The woman passed through both phases of the assessment and it was concluded that the woman would need medication as the case was not so bad to warrant admission.

“The doctor gave a prescription to them and both the patient and her son went to the reception at the emergency unit, sat down, and thereafter, the boy went to cost the prescription and also went to pay at the outpatient unit.

“After payment and receiving the medication, he returned and realised that his mother was not where he left her. He started looking for her but never escalated that she was missing on that Friday.

“Instead, he went home with the hope that the mother would be at home and on getting home and didn’t find the mother, instead of them to return in the evening or night, they returned around 2pm on Saturday to escalate that she had gone missing.

“Immediately we got to know, we informed the police, wrote a report, got her pictures, and started a search process. After we saw the trending news, we invited the boy in the video clip alongside the victim’s family members and we have expressed readiness to support them to search for their mother.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, who confirmed the incident, said a search party had been organised to locate her whereabouts.