Gunshot victims and police report

Recently, a colleague lost a dear brother in an obviously avoidable situation. The deceased, Adebayo Akinwumi, a promising engineer with a top global telecommunication brand, was shot at close range by dare-devil armed robbers who invaded his home in the dead of the night. As bad as his case was, he could have survived if only he had had prompt medical attention.

He was allegedly rejected by some private hospitals around their neighbourhood on the account of police report. He was later rushed to the family hospital which equally refused to treat him on account of police report. Having lost so much blood, the young man eventually gave up the ghost.

Sadly, his case is just one of such distasteful examples of compatriots who had died in similar circumstances. It will be recalled that on September 20, 2009, Mr. Ogunbayo Ohu, the then Assistant News Editor of The Guardian newspaper was shot severally on a Sunday morning in his house in Egbeda, Lagos, by supposed hired killers. He would have survived the gunshots if the neighbouring hospital he was taken to had promptly attended to him.

Now, it is difficult to really understand why medical workers that are basically trained to save lives would prefer to do otherwise at moments of life threatening emergencies. In most cases, family members and other sympathizers of gunshot victims are often too shock and confused to really have the stability of mind to think rationally. Just imagine what the frame of mind of a woman who virtually watched as her husband was being brutally murdered would be at that particular moment. This is exactly why it is crucial for health workers to always consider the sanctity of the human life in such decisive circumstances.

The concept of the sanctity of life is anchored on the sacred nature of life, and the fact that everything that is humanly possible must be done to preserve life. Every other thing that man losses can, one way or the other, be restored, but when a life is lost, it is gone forever. Considering, especially, the Hippocratic Oath that is binding on medical doctors, all over the world, the desire to save life should be central in all their concerns. Health workers have the fundamental task of first and foremost caring for the injured and the sick on the basis of the ethics of their profession.

Aside the humanitarian and professional perspectives, it is equally legally wrong for medical workers to insist on the production of police before attending to victims of gunshots. It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act, 2017 and this should ordinarily put to rest the contentious issue once and for all. With President Buhari’s assent to the law, victims of gunshot and car accidents should receive immediate treatment in the hospital. Through the law, a legal framework to guarantee that gunshot victims are treated without demanding for any clearance from the police has been established.

The law is primarily concerned about access to medical care, irrespective of circumstances leading to the gunshot. Therefore, suitable treatment from medical workers and essential assistance from security agencies should follow treatment of gunshot victims irrespective of the cause of the shooting. This becomes rather very essential in view of the fact that it is not every gunshot wound victim that is a criminal.

It is, thus, quite pleasant to note that that the Lagos State Police Commissioner Imohimi Edgal, recently vowed to prosecute any hospital in the State who rejects gunshot victims on the premise of police report. The CP, however, added that the Act requires the hospital treating such a patient to report the fact to the nearest police station within two hours of commencement of treatment.

It must be stressed that though the Act is a major breakthrough, health sector stakeholders still need to step efforts towards increasing awareness on the subject. Also, appropriate law enforcement agencies need to ensure that proprietors of recalcitrant hospitals are duly prosecuted and punished accordingly to serve as deterrent to others.

The idea of waiting for police reports before treating gunshot victims is archaic and inhuman and must be condemned in its entirety. Of late, we have had to contend with cases of needless loss of lives across the country. We are someway getting used to gory tales of people dying that we don’t seem to really care anymore. However, in as much as it could somehow be taken in if some irrational chaps, who have lost their minds, chose the murderous path in the name of insurgency. But then, it becomes ridiculous and disturbing when medical workers that are trained to save life opt to become less concerned about human lives. This is not right, and it must be stopped.

Tayo Ogunbiyi

Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State Ministry of Information & Strategy Alausa, Ikeja