Family: How UNTH negligence killed my sister - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

… Family recounts harrowing 12-hour ordeal, says “Nigeria happened to us”

The University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, is once again in the spotlight following a chilling testimony of alleged gross negligence that led to the avoidable death of a patient, Mrs. Charity Unachukwu, on September 20, 2025, reports ITREALMS.

According to a first-hand account by her sister, Mrs. Phina Unachukwu Ezeagwu, the family endured a harrowing 12-hour ordeal across multiple hospitals in Enugu, only for the victim to die at UNTH without receiving a single unit of blood transfusion, despite massive blood loss from internal injuries.

ITREALMS gathered that Charity, a road accident victim, was initially stabilised at a local hospital before being referred first to the Orthopaedic Hospital and then Parklane. Eventually, she was rushed to UNTH at 1am in an ambulance, blood-soaked and barely holding on. But what should have been life-saving emergency care became a bureaucratic nightmare.

Her family alleged that UNTH doctors and staff refused to admit her immediately, citing lack of beds, until her husband and ambulance driver sourced a mattress and later a hospital bed themselves. She was only admitted at 3am, two hours after arrival.

Worse still, the laboratory allegedly refused to process urgent blood samples until “official work hours,” despite “very urgent” written on the request forms. The family said precious samples coagulated while staff ignored pleas, forcing repeated draws from an already weak patient.

“At about 1:30pm, she had started having respiratory distress and sweats all over her forehead and yet no transfusion. At 1:45pm, my sister gave up the ghost. The blood hematology lab result was still not ready. No transfusion was done for more than 12 hours,” Phina lamented.

Other shocking allegations included that the porters abandoned their duties, laughing and ignoring emergency calls, Doctors threatening to leave the family to their fate, disorganisation so deep that ICU transfer was delayed for lack of a written report, even as the patient’s condition worsened as well as filthy conveniences and decayed infrastructure described as “an eyesore in a health facility.”

The grieving sister concluded bitterly:

“UNTH killed my sister with negligence of duty. Nothing is working there. Nigeria happened to us – a country where leaders fly abroad for medical tourism while citizens perish in dearth of Medicare.”

Mrs. Ezeagwu said she has promised to support her late sister’s children while calling on Nigerians to expose and resist the rot in the health system.

As at press time, UNTH management had yet to respond to enquiries about the allegations.

Remmy Nweke/DoP