LUTH doctor Michael dies after 72-hour non-stop shift

Tweeps have turned to X to discuss the passing of a young physician named Dr. Umoh Michael, who died on Sunday after purportedly working for 72 straight hours.

Michael reportedly passed away on September 17 at the United Evangelical worship during a worship service. He was alleged to have performed a continuous 72-hour shift while a resident physician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in Idi-Araba.

In a letter to the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Wasiu Lanre Adeyemo, doctors affiliated with the Association of Resident Doctors, LUTH chapter, attested to the young physician's overwork.

They stated that Michael had worked a 72-hour shift in the hospital and had only barely slept in their flat before he arrived home at around 3 a.m. on Sunday.

The statement partly read, “We the house officers are in deep grief over the loss of our colleague, a co-house officer (Dr Umoh Michael) who died on 17th September, 2023, after having a 72hrs call in the Neurosurgery Unit.

“He is said to have been on call 72hrs before arriving home on Sunday morning to get set for church service, reaching his worship centre (United Evangelical Church) where he slumped in the church at about 11 am.”

“His roommate attested to the fact that Umoh Michael had barely slept in their apartment over the past one week as he was always on call or the day he returned home was around 3 a.m. after surgeries and other activities in the Neurosurgery Unit.”

Tweeps have since taken to X to share their thoughts on the alleged inhumane treatment meted out to the doctors.

A tweep, drfynrekins, tweeted, “I salute my Hippocratic colleague & wish him farewell on his journey to the great beyond. I hope #nmanigeria would come out strongly and protect these young doctors. These deaths are devastating and unacceptable, and it would further deplete the numbers of those practising in Nigeria and discourage those still in medical school. Unfortunately, the young doctors are the ones bearing the brunt of the decay in the healthcare system in Nigeria but this trend must be stopped.”

Source