Nollywood Actor, Charles Okocha Stomach Bursts Open After Surgery - Photos

“I am not just worried but I’m mad about what happened as we tried to save Okocha’s life. I was at Danduko’s house on December 27, 2015 for the traditional wedding of his daughter. What really happened was that the trigger-happy police officer saw an actor he recognized and in excitement he said, ‘Look at this my guy, let me throw one in air for him (meaning to give him gun salute).’ As some people said, he was drunk and apparently forgot that he had previously set the gun on rapid fire. His intention was to fire one shot into the air. He pulled the trigger, but could not control the gun again because up to eight or nine bullets flew out. The bullets hit two people, Sam Belonwu Dim and Charles Okocha.  But I didn’t see the other guy (Sam) and there was a noise at the other end.

“When I rushed out of Danduko’s compound, I saw Charles Okocha lying helplessly on the ground. People started shouting, ‘Hey, ewoo, it is that actor oo.’ Some people even brought out their camera phones and started taking pictures of him without doing anything to save his life. Here was somebody who was dying and needed help. I shouted at them. So many cars that were parked outside blocked the way. My own car was parked at a primary school some metres away from the scene of the incident. Okocha’s intestines were already coming out, but he was strong enough to hold them.”

“With two other guys accompanying me, we sped to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi. But what we experienced was a nightmare. Okocha was crying, ‘Please help me, I don’t want to die, Jesus help me.’
At the hospital, the conduct of the nurses and doctors was so annoying. The other people who helped to bring the actor to the hospital were angry and started shouting at the medical personnel.  I told my friends that making trouble or even shouting at them could make our friend Charles to die unattended to. I had to beg the nurses and all that. They were just telling us, go here, go there, sign for this, sign for that. I was obediently doing all that even faster than they expected.

“It was over two hours and thirty minutes before the doctor that was to conduct the surgery came. Then I was told to go and sign approval for transfusion of blood. I told them to check if my blood could match his, and said that I was willing to donate blood to save his life. They said it would take longer time, that they already had blood in their bank.  But they said what they had in their blood bank would have to pass through test one, two and three for HIV/AIDS. They said they were waiting to do the last one. For the fact that the case was urgent, they said that if I had no objections, I could sign that I approved for them to use the one they were not very sure of being HIV free. They said they are waiting for the last confirmatory test that the blood was HIV-free.

“At the end of the day I was just pleading, petting and begging and they were able to move the young man in a stretcher to the theater door. Then an argument ensued between them. Friends and my brother who came along with me wanted to shout but I pleaded with them to calm down so that the matter would not get worse.  From what I observed, they don’t really care about people, whether they make it or not. After all, they did not cause the accident and, therefore, not interested in whether the person lives or dies. That is the impression people have about the hospital.”

“I don’t want to mention how many people that gave up as I was waiting on the same night as I was at the emergency unit. I don’t want to talk about an accident victim brought in there and was not treated because those who brought him could not pay N500 for him. And I had to pay for him. I am not talking about another accident victim who was brought in that night and what a nurse could only say was, ‘Imagine the kind of alcohol smell that is coming from his mouth, look at what he has done to himself,’ while the guy was bleeding profusely,”

“Nurses rushed over, looked at him and ran away. Anybody who looked at his dangling intestines could not behold the sight. It was a gory sight. But Okocha was courageous enough to hold his intestines from dropping on the ground and he turned his face away from his hands so that he would not faint at the sight of his own intestines coming out.
“After about 25 minutes the so-called surgeon came in again. He went back to start all over and Charles began to go through the pains he had a few days ago. It was an annoying thing. When they came to the ward they said openly that they were supposed to have used nylon three for the stitching but what was available was nylon one and they had to use what they had at least to save his life that day. Why I am angry is that they could have told us to rally round and get the right material and any other thing they needed. Any drug given to a patient at the teaching hospital is paid for before it can be administered.

“Is it not a reasonable step that they should have sent us to get the right stitching material, that is, nylon three, to avoid the bursting?  They were bold to tell us why the stomach burst. That is the reason I’m mad.  I have never seen a thing like that before.  And we heard that the nylon is only sold for N700.00.

“I know that I’m nobody, just a young man who is trying to survive. But I have contacts through my business as an event planner. I have been sending text messages to important people I know, pleading with them to get the federal government to conduct investigation into the way the teaching hospitals operate. This thing must be investigated. People are undergoing bad moments in some of these government-owned hospitals.”

“I heard about the eruption, stomach burst.  The doctor wanted to use Nylon 2 Defilon but what was available was Nylon 1. It is not possible that everything you need, the number and quality will be available at every given time.  And you know that was on a Sunday. But the Nylon 1 is used and one still gets a perfect result. I don’t know why this should be made an issue. I investigated the incident by myself and discovered that there was no negligence.  The Nylon 1 and Nylon 2 are of high quality not even the 3 you are talking about.  Life and death are actually in the hands of God.  We did everything humanly possible to save Charles Okocha’s life. And this is what one should be grateful for instead of painting the hospital black.

“We do conduct audit on how our doctors and nurses work and we have a disciplinary committee, which handles erring medical personnel. There is no negligence in this matter.  Some doctors even use Nylon 1 ordinarily. It is just that the doctor said he wanted to use Nylon 2.  Nylon 2 was available in the hospital but it wasn’t available at the time the doctor was doing the surgery. There was a repeat surgery and it was successful,”