Dr Lase Moye, a House Officer at the Lagos State General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island where Dr Ovwaere Diaso fell to her death from in a faulty elevator, says she would have died also in the incident if not for a video call she received at the time.
SaharaReporters reported the tragic death of Diaso at the Lagos hospital on Wednesday.
It has been reported that the graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, died on Monday, exactly two weeks before the completion of her horsemanship.
She was said to have died while the elevator she was inside, which is said to have been faulty for about a year, reportedly crashed from the 10th floor of the building to the ground floor.
The crash reportedly occurred when Diaso entered the elevator at the doctors’ quarters to collect her food from a dispatch rider waiting for her downstairs. She was inside the elevator when it suddenly malfunctioned and plummeted to the ground, resulting in severe injuries.
Narrating the chilling experience and the manifest negligence of the hospital management like in most government institutions, Moye, a colleague of the deceased Diaso said she only survived by the Grace of God.
Moye who took to her Twitter handle @LaseMoye to share how the incident occurred, said, "I was standing in front of the elevator and pressed the open button so I could step in, I was on a video call with my friend and it's the singular reason I hadn't entered just yet."
"I heard the Big Crash to the floor. Elevator crashed from the 9th floor to even below the ground floor, glass shattering, bricks clashing, sand trickling down," she said, narrating the incident.
According to Dr Moye, a House Officer at the hospital said a dispatch rider who also heard the sound ran out.
Apparently, he was carrying the food she (Diaso) had ordered.
Moye said "he ran out of the building because of the impact that shook the foundations of the very building," adding "It was then I realised what just happened."
Continuing, she said, "I froze because I was in shock, then I heard Mr Charles shouting hope nobody is inside, I said if someone is there, the person is gone not knowing she was in there. And alive in fact."
"Then Quadri ran down," Moye said she shouted: "Vwaere is there," and they started running out to get help. "They tried to use rods to open it, to be sure it wasn't a joke, they finally opened it," describing the sight as "gruesome. Muffled sounds of excruciating pain and agony became apparent."
She continued, "Her forehead had a horizontal cut, her mouth had another one, raccoon eyes, no! She was lying in between the base of the elevator and the ground floor with the engine hanging over her head which meant any miscalculation in movement, she'll be crushed to instant death!
"She was literally sandwiched in between the hanging engine and below the ground floor with blood on broken glasses and fractured limbs. It's not a sight to describe. She's a tall person so imagine the crush God! Called on professional engineers to come and dismantle it because any abrupt movement could let the elevator give."
She said it "took almost 40 mins for them to get there".
"Initially they sent representatives to dismantle it and these guys came dressed in a suit, suit? Really? when the day is over. Lol! They were at VI, VI is 15 mins to the marina or less, what took them so long???? Or they didn't think it was life and death???????" she said.
Recalling her conversation with Diaso and telling her to relax and that help was coming, Moye said Diaso replied: "Don't tell me to relax, tell them to get me out of here."
"We eventually got her out and she kept saying she thinks she'll die," she added.
Lamenting the emergency management that followed the accident, Dr Moye regretted that emergency care was almost zero.
She said, "There was no blood in the hospital, we were taught to give blood for blood loss in med school but no blood available for Vwaere, it's all theory and the books in Nigeria!!
"She was stuck in the elevator for 1 freaking hour. Eventually wheeled out but she was already weak and she kept saying don't want to die. They commenced CPR and the finality of it all happened."
"This thing started like play," Moye further explained. "From the elevator taking a maximum of eight people, to it stopping abruptly between floors and then you are forced to use your legs for the rest of your journey. From it taking just two people per trip to avoid it hanging midway, to it only functioning when you stand far from the entrance, to it being closed manually for it to work, to it being restarted for every trip it makes down the 10 floors, to it finally crashing and taking one of us.
"These changes over the last years!" she narrated.
She blamed the hospital management for the tragedy, saying it had time to fix the elevator as there had been several complaints.
"There was enough time for them to fix the damn elevator! We had been complaining about basic amenities in that quarters. No light and water, fix the damn elevator! They'll say we should write a letter, we write the letter they tell us it's not HSC that is responsible but it's the medical guild, the medical guild will say it's Alausa, Alausa will say it's not on them!
"Back and forth for years, six good years!!!. Will you say she died? It's MURDER! She was murdered. She had two weeks to finish HJ," she said.
Continuing, she said, "I remember the last time we complained they said we should manage that in their time they were sleeping in call rooms during their houseman-ship days and we are lucky we have water, lift, and rooms to live in and we aren't grateful. Like we are asking for too much?? They were not even giving us the barest minimum and they shut us up when we complained.
"I remember during the campaign when Sanwo Olu was coming to General Hospital Odan, the water-logged area after casualty used to be sandy and unplayable when rain falls but guess who they employed to work overnight for 3 days to fill the space with gravel??? Labourers were employed by the same management that watched that road deteriorate before a governor was coming.
"How did the road get fixed in just 3 nights? Shovel clanks through the night disturbing my sleep just because Sanwo Olu was coming to campaign?? Why??? Eye service everywhere, it's sucks! Tell me, did anybody have to die??? Did anyone have to?
"Imagine what it took to train a child in med school for 7 years in a private university, only for her to die 2 weeks to finishing horsemanship! Noooo fam! It's a wicked country, she wasn't sick but the system failed her!"