Ojokoro Explosion: I Lost My Daughter Because We Couldn’t Afford ICU - Woman Laments

A 27-year-old mother, Chidinma John, has appealed to Nigerians for financial assistance to treat her parents and brothers who were victims of the Ojokoro, Lagos gas explosion on Sunday afternoon.

A 6kg cooking gas exploded at their residence at Olaniyi Bus Stop, Cele Street in Ojokoro, leaving her mother, Grace, 52, Father, Eyeribeh, 61, brother, Chizurum, 20, and four-year-old daughter, Farida Shittu, with high degree burns.

The Nation reports that the  four injured persons were rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, where they were admitted at the Burns Unit.

While the four-year-old died on Monday evening, the other injured persons were still on oxygen at the hospital.

Lamenting the fate that befell her, Chidinma told The Nation yesterday that she lost her daughter because she could not afford N600,000 for her to be moved to the Intensive Care Unit.

The hotel receptionist who was inconsolable at the hospital’s premises when our Correspondent visited, wondered what she was living for since she could not save her child.

“My innocent daughter died because I could not afford the ICU. They asked us to pay N600,000 for the ICU, I didn’t have it. My daughter was rushed to LASUTH on Sunday afternoon and she was put on oxygen. She needed a bigger oxygen but they said there’s no light and that the gen is faulty. We were told to wait for power to be restored before the bigger oxygen can be powered.

“Because she inhaled smoke, she needed to be moved to the ICU so that her breathing can be improved. We paid over N185,000 for tests and medications. None of the rest was even conducted on her yet before she died.

“On Monday morning, one good boss who visited told the hospital to move my baby to the ICU that he will pay the amount. From 11am that he told them till my baby died around 7pm, the ICU people did not come to take her.

“We kept calling them. The nurses at the Burns ward kept sending us to go and call them. My baby’s father and myself kept going there but no one answered us. We told them my baby was dying but they didn’t answer us. That’s how my baby died gradually. I could not save her, I could not pay the bills to keep her alive,” she cried.

Begging Nigerians to come to their rescue, Chidinma said her parents and brother were transferred to LASUTH from a private facility on Monday morning, adding that she had already spent all her savings on their treatment.

“I have already spent all I have for them to be treated. Since they were brought to LASUTH on Monday morning from a private clinic, I have paid over N300,000 for their beds, tests and medications. The bills keep coming and I do not know how I am going to pay them.

“Just now, they have asked us to pay N55,000 for another test for the three of them. They are in critical condition as I speak to you.

“I am crying out for help because I don’t want to lose my parents and my brother. I have already lost my daughter and I don’t want to lose anyone else. Nigerians should please come and help me through this. The government should please come to my rescue.

“We lost everything we own in that fire. The clothes I am wearing now were given to me here at the hospital on Sunday night when I brought my daughter. Right now, we do not even have a place to sleep. My sister and I have been hanging around the hospital since then.

“Even when my parents and brother are discharged, we don’t have where to take them. We don’t have anything, not even food to eat nor where to take a bath.

“Please Nigerians, come and help us,” she cried.

Narrating how the explosion occurred, Chidinma said they were in the house that Sunday afternoon when her mother wanted to cook stew.

She said her mother asked her to leave their one-roomed face-me-I-face-you house so that the cooking won’t affect her since she had surgery last week.

“I had appendicitis surgery last week. So, my mother asked me to go outside so that the frying of the stew won’t disturb me. I wanted to take my baby with me but she was sleeping.

“So, while I was outside, I called my younger sister who was also in the house to go and buy malt for me. As soon as she stepped out with her phone and ATM card, we heard a loud sound which was followed by smoke and fire.

“The gas exploded on my brother as he was the one who lit it. He told my mother to hold on for him to boil water for tea before she starts cooking. As soon as he lit the gas, it exploded on his face and body.

“My sister and I were just fortunate that we were outside of the house when it happened, else the entire family would have been burnt,” she said.

Writhing in pains in her hospital bed Mrs. Grace John, who was yet to know that her granddaughter was dead, cried about her family’s homelessness.

“Where will my family stay? What are we going to do? Why me?” She sobbed.

The Nation learnt that the Lagos Office Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, visited the victims at the hospital to follow up on them and gave them some assistance he got from the Local Government chairman in Ojokoro.

Contacted, Farinloye confirmed that the child died Monday evening.

He said all 14 rooms in the building located at 1, Odubanwo Street, off Olaniyi Street, Gbinrinmi in Ojokoro LCDA, were destroyed by the fire and the place had been demolished.

“The whole building of 14 rooms including shops completely went down in rubble due to the intensity of the explosion thereby rendering 11 families homeless.

“The landlord of the victims, Pa Femi Odubanwo Solomon, disclosed that neighbours saved him from dying in the incident as he was initially trapped and was presently squatting in a church opposite his destroyed house.”