A young doctor, identified as Dr. Umoh Michael, died on Sunday after allegedly working 72 hours straight.
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.
Tweeps have used X to express their opinions over the passing of a young doctor.
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 center (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.”
Reacting to the sad incident, LUTH’s Public Relations Officer, Omolola Fakeye, who spoke on an online platform (not PUNCH) Online said, “It is not true that anybody worked for 72 hours. I have not been briefed about his death.
“We were at a programme yesterday (Monday), but I will find out; I can’t say anything now. I will check the medical report of what could have happened because anybody can say anything, but the medical report will show us what happened.”
