FAMILY RECOUNTS LAST MOMENTS WITH DOCTOR
How health workers died in Kano, 292 others on watchlist Ondo residents shun hugging, handshakes
Family members, colleagues and well wishers of an Anesthesiologist Consultant with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, Dr. Muhammad Musa who died of Lassa fever while trying to save the lives of his patients, are still in shock and deep mourning.
Dr. Musa died alongside one other medical personnel, a House Officer in the hospital, Ummu Khulthum Abba, following an outbreak of Lassa fever which they were handling.
The two medical officers were among the three victims so far confirmed dead in Kano State in the wake of the Lassa fever outbreak while about 292 others have been placed under watch in the state.
In Ondo State, a total of 89 cases where reported out of which 16 deaths were recorded and 24 others were treated and discharged.
Other cases of Lassa fever outbreaks were reported in Delta, Edo and Enugu.
Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) caused by the Lassa virus. The natural carrier of the virus is the multimammate rat, but the disease is also spread through human to human transmission.
Family members, colleagues, patients, well wishers and friends wept uncontrollably as hundreds of people thronged the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and the Fagge family house of the slain doctors to express their sympathies.
The funeral prayer for the doctors which was held at the AKTH attracted a crowd of people who thronged in to pay their last respects to the fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives while trying to save others. Daily Trust reports that the deceased were part of the medical team that performed caesarean section on a pregnant woman from Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State who died of the disease.
A source familiar with the Lassa fever case at AKTH confided in Daily Trust that after the pregnant woman returned to Kano, she developed a serious fever and was first admitted at a private hospital. But after some days, doctors at the hospital referred her to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
According to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, the state recorded only three deaths while 292 others were placed on watch list.
Dr. Tsanyawa confirmed that the index case of the killer fever was a 28-yearold pregnant woman from Gwale Local Government Area who became sick two weeks after the death of her mother.
He explained that the woman was referred from a private hospital to AKTH on December 31, 2019, but died on January 1, 2020.
“Posing more risks to the state at large, more than 292 contacts are being monitored by Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNO). They would be on surveillance for three weeks before they could be confirmed free from the disease,” said the commissioner.
Alhaji Adamu Sarki, a brother, of the late Dr. Muhammad Habeeb and the widow of the deceased have confirmed that they and some of their family members were being monitored by medical experts in order to ensure that they were not infected.
Sarki said, “As I speak to you, my blood sample has been taken by some medical experts from the Kano State Ministry of Health and we will be monitored for three weeks.”
Last moments of Dr. Habeeb
Hajiya Safiyyah Muhammad Bandar, the widow of the late Dr. Muhammad Habeeb Musa described her late husband as a caring, honest, loving and humane person who was always willing to assist whoever came his way for help.
“Doctor was the kind of person who could sacrifice his happiness for others. For instance, he could give out his last penny to someone in need just to make him happy. Late Habeeb was a nice person and all I can say about him is that I have really lost a jovial and generous partner,” she said.
Safiyyah said she spent hours with him at the AKTH where he was admitted, adding that Habeeb was laying on his hospital bed discussing with her when suddenly he became unconscious.
“Shortly after I fed him with pap, we engaged in a discussion over some issues. But a few minutes into our discussion, he became unconscious. I quickly called the nurse that was on duty. She called a doctor around and together they rushed my husband to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He passed a night at the ICU be but died the following morning,”
“My husband received a distress call around 2:00 am that he was needed at the hospital to assist the team carryout the surgery. Typical of him, he quickly prepared and headed to the hospital. That’ how he became part of the team,” she recalled.
she said.
Safiyyah, who is also a nurse at the AKTH revealed that her husband was initially not among the doctors designated for the surgery on the late pregnant woman, but his colleagues invited him for the surgery.
“My husband received a distress call around 2:00 am that he was needed at the hospital to assist the team carryout the surgery. Typical of him, he quickly prepared and headed to the hospital. That’ how he became part of the team,” she recalled.
Safiyyah, a mother of six, said her late husband was beyond a medical doctor, adding that many people also viewed him as an Islamic scholar and philanthropist as he spent parts of his life serving humanity at various levels.
“Although, Habeeb was a medical doctor, he engaged in many activities like organizing and conducting a free medical outreaches at many hard-to-reach communities in the state. He paid medical bills for his patients.
“I can confidently tell you that a larger portion of his monthly salary was being spent on assisting the less privileged within and outside his place of work. Even his students can testify to that as he paid school fees for many of them. Whenever I complained about his behavior, his answer would be “abin da ka bayar shi ne naka, (it’s what you give, you will be rewarded for),” she said.
She further recalled that her late husband had a premonition of his death, as he recently told her that when he died he wanted the Islamiyyah School he was building in Makole in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area to be completed.
“Just a few weeks ago, when we were discussing about the level of work done at the site where he was building the Islamiyyah school, he told me that in case he died before finishing the project, we should make sure that work is completed”, she said.
Also, his brother, Alhaji Adamu Sarki, spoke glowingly about the late medical doctor, describing him as a very brilliant and talented person.
“To be honest with you, his sacrifices and assistance to the public can’t be quantified; before his burial and after his burial, we have been receiving a lot of testimonies about Habeeb’s humanitarian gestures to many people we do not even know.
“I can remember at about six in the morning after his death, it was agreed that only the CMD could break the news to me. Therefore, when he called me, I asked him if Habeeb had died and he said no, but that my attention was needed in the hospital.
“I urged him to tell me the actual situation as I was capable of handling it. He then broke the news to me that Habeeb was no more, before going to the hospital I told other members of our family. Initially, it was suggested that the funeral prayer should be held at the hospital, but I objected and insisted that it should be done in our home at Fagge. “However, when I went to see his body, I met a lot of his colleagues in a terrible grieving situation. Right there, I came to realize that indeed, Habeeb had another strong family in the hospital and that made me change my plans and accept the funeral prayer to be conducted in the hospital.”
He said the family received a lot of testimonies about him, recalling that someone at the cemetery said Habeeb was his father because he had come to his aid when he needed help, adding that it was Habeeb that treated him when he was sick and also paid for his drugs till he fully recovered.
Sarki said sympathizers who thronged the late doctor’s family house wept uncontrollably as if they were biologically related to him.
He recalled that they received people from various states of the federation who came in to to condole the family.
“His last work was a free medical surgery he did at Tudun Wada and Doguwa for five days and it was after that he fell sick”, he said.
Sarki said some of the immediate family members that had contact with him prior his death were placed on watch list, saying their body temperature was being taken periodically.
In a chat with Daily Trust, Professor Aminu Muhammad Gwarzo, who accompanied the National President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Professor Francis Faduyile to Kano to commiserate with members of the association over the death of some members of the association including Habeeb, described him as not only a doctor but a philanthropist and an Islamic propagator.
Professor Gwarzo said, “Health practitioners have lost a strong man. It would take us sometime to get a replacement for Habeeb. He was a kind of person that could sacrifice his comfort in order to make others happy. He saved many lives in his life time and as a philanthropist, he did a lot for the less privileged within and outside Kano.”
Earlier, professor Faduyile, the NMA’s national president, said the association recently lost four of its members in Kano, saying “All doctors and other members of the medical association feel sad over the loss of some of our best, who passed on in the last few days. We lost a young house officer who just came to the profession, who died last week Friday. And while we were mourning her loss, we had a case of ghastly motor accident where three of our members, a consultant urologist who was a senior registrar and another member of the medical team died.
“We also received with shock that one of our best anesthesiologists has passed on. We felt we needed to come to Kano and condole with families of the deceased,” he said. Commenting on the Lassa fever outbreak in Kano, Professor Faduyile said it was unfortunate that some gallant members of the association did everything to save the life of the pregnant woman who unknown to them had contacted lass fever.
“The house officer who died was the one who assisted the senior registrar and Dr Habeeb had to do everything to keep the woman alive because she had a cardiac arrest at the time she was being treated, hence needed resuscitation.”
He assured that the NMA would stand with Kano in its moment of trial, adding that the association was confident that with commitment by the state government, residents should not panic as the situation was under control.
“It is not true that you have to bath with salt water, presently, the contacts have been traced and those who have high fever are being monitored. With the response of the state government and management of the AKTH, this outbreak would be curtailed within a short time,” he said.