Resident doctor slumps, dies after ‘72-hour shift’ in Rivers

Oluwafemi Rotifa, a young resident doctor at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), collapsed and died after “a 72-hour shift”.

Rotifa was said to have slumped on Monday after going to the call room to rest. He later passed on despite efforts to resuscitate him in the intensive care unit.

He was said to have been on continuous call duty for three days.

Confirming the incident to TheCable, Tope Osundara, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), condemned the workload of doctors in Nigerian hospitals.

“The burnout and workload among medical doctors is becoming very worrisome,” he said.

“We have cried out and complained repeatedly.

“What happened is that the resident doctor was on call in the emergency room. Unfortunately, the workload was strenuous, and they had to regularly go over 24-hour shifts. He had reviewed a patient, and afterwards, he went to the call room to rest.

“They came to call him, and it was there that they saw him sprawled on the floor. He must have fallen from the bed.”

Osundara said some doctors spend a whole month on call.

“Ideally, no one should be on call for even 24 hours. We later discovered he was treating malaria, but adults in Nigeria don’t die of malaria. Malaria is endemic in Nigeria. He had malaria but still had to go and treat a patient,” he said.

“The overuse of manpower strained his health and led to this painful death. His death was due to overworking.”

He asked the government to address staff shortage, improve welfare packages and enforce humane work schedules for doctors.