Naira Scarcity: Pregnant Woman Dies In Kano Hospital Over Payment Alerts Delay

Shema’u Sani Labaran, a pregnant Nigerian woman in Kano, has died.

She died in the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital over alleged negligence from doctors as a result of the new naira policy crisis.

The late woman’s husband, Malam Bello Fancy, said her death was as a result of delay in transfer made to the bank and that the doctors didn’t attend to his wife for more than three hours.

Recall that the Kano State Government warned marketers, supermarkets and the public against rejecting old naira notes in the state, saying it would shut down and revoke the licence of any business enterprise found in the act.

However, it was gathered from residents that some institutions, including government-owned, filling stations and marketers have been rejecting the old notes, including hospitals that battle with emergencies.

Speaking to Freedom Radio, Malam Fancy, said he took his wife to the hospital when she was about to deliver, but that the hospital rejected his old naira notes and also had no POS, hence that they asked him to deposit the money in their account.

He said although he transferred the money and got debited, the doctors on duty didn’t touch his wife as they said they must see the alert in their account, which took almost three hours.

“My wife walked into the hospital from our house, but before they received the alert, the pains had doubled and she was already bleeding. Still, they didn’t touch her until after three hours when they received the alert.

“After they admitted her, they discovered that she could not deliver by herself; that she must undergo an operation. I agreed and paid the money; still through transfer. It also delayed for an additional three hours before they received the alert and operated on my wife. Shockingly, the baby was brought out dead and the mother also died.”

However, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Rahila Garba, denied the allegation, saying the claim was not the true representation of the incident.

But other patients in the hospital confirmed the incident, saying they too encountered problems with payment of hospital bills which delayed services.

Meanwhile, speaking with City & Crime about the incident, the spokesman of the state’s Hospital Management Board, Malam Ibrahim Abdullahi, said they received information about the incident and that they would commence an investigation.

He said, “We are not certain about the cause of the incident, we just got the information. But we have commenced an investigation into the matter.”