By Deborah Nnamdi
A senior consultant physician, identified as Dr. Ibrahim, has died after collapsing shortly after arriving at Arewa Surgery Hospital in Hotoro, Kano State, to attend to patients waiting for his evening clinic.
The incident occurred on Saturday, with the doctor reportedly dying about 15 minutes after he was rushed into the hospital’s emergency unit.
The incident was disclosed by Suleiman Harbo, an aide to the Jigawa State Governor, who said he witnessed the tragic event while accompanying his elderly mother to the hospital for a scheduled appointment.
According to Harbo, he arrived at the hospital around 5 p.m. with his mother, only to be informed that the consultant physician originally scheduled to see patients was unavailable. Hospital staff subsequently directed them to Dr. Ibrahim, who had agreed to stand in for the absent consultant.
Harbo said about six patients, most of them over 80 years old, waited for the physician. Concerned by the delay, he contacted the hospital’s reception, where staff reached Dr. Ibrahim by telephone and informed him that elderly patients were waiting. The doctor reportedly assured them he would arrive after observing the Maghrib prayer.
He arrived at the hospital shortly afterwards but became dizzy immediately after stepping out of his vehicle. Fellow medical personnel quickly rushed him to the emergency unit, where doctors made frantic efforts to revive him. He was, however, pronounced dead about 15 minutes later.
Harbo described the incident as heartbreaking, saying the tragedy left patients and hospital staff in deep shock.
He recalled that several senior consultant doctors battled unsuccessfully to save the physician, while the elderly patients who had been waiting to be treated watched the tragic scene unfold.
According to him, his mother was initially unaware of what had happened and asked if the doctor had arrived. Before he could respond, another patient informed her that the physician they had been waiting to see had died.
Harbo said his mother responded by offering prayers for the deceased before deciding to return home.
He also disclosed that people present during the doctor’s final moments said his last audible words were, “La ilaha illallah,” the Islamic declaration of faith.
The cause of Dr. Ibrahim’s sudden collapse was not immediately known.
