Lack of medical supplies at the Yola specialist Hospital is
hampering the treatment of victims of Tuesday’s bomb blast at a tipper garage
in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, Premium Times reveals after visiting the
said place.
The National Emergency management Agency confirmed that 32
persons died from the blast while 80 persons were injured.
The injured were taken to the Federal Medical Centre and
Yola Specialist Hospital, a state-owned hospital.
The newspaper’s checks at the Hospital on Wednesday showed that
most of those conveyed to the Hospital could not receive needed treatment due
to lack of medical supplies.
One of the victims seen on his Hospital bed said he was only
given “two tablets and one injection since last night”.
“Since they brought me yesterday, I was just given Tetanus
injection and two tablets of Paracetamol,” he told Premium Times as he writhed
in pains. “You can see blood is still dripping from my wounds.”
Another victim said, “After I paid one thousand naira, they
did an x-ray and said there is a metal inside my wound, however, nothing has
happened since then”.
The victims requested not to be named for fear of
victimization from relevant authorities.
A woman whose three daughters were affected by the blast
told the newspaper only cotton wool was applied to her daughters’ injuries, as
there was no enough medical supply.
“They just put cotton wool on the injuries and use masking
tapes because they ran out of bandage. There was also no iodine to treat the
wounds, only God can help us,” she said.
Speaking further, the woman said she had to pay N8000 to
“get the wounds cleaned” adding x-ray done on her daughters showed “there is a
foreign object inside the chest of one of them”.
The woman added that she was given a list of drugs buy from
a nearby pharmacy for treatment to continue.
They also gathered that the Speaker of Adamawa State House
of Assembly on Wednesday led some of the lawmakers on a visit to the victims of
the blast.
Victims said the lawmaker did not, however, make any pledge
of assistance on behalf of the state government.
Meanwhile, Governor Mohammed Jibrilla, who was in Abuja when
the blast occurred, has returned to the state and has also visited victims at
the two hospitals they are receiving treatment.
The governor lamented the attack, coming a month after a
similar one claimed many lives at a mosque in the state.
“We as a government are doing everything possible to nip any
attack,” the governor said. “We need your support because these bad people live
within us.”
The governor also assured the victims that he would do his
best to ameliorate their suffering and “take care of the bills”.
When contacted, the state commissioner of Information, Ahmad
Sajoh, said there might have been short supply of medical aid last night, but
that relevant agencies had already stepped in to ameliorate the situation.
“This is an emergency that no one saw coming, but
immediately after it happened, the Permanent Secretary of the State Emergency
management Agency and the official of NEMA as well as myself rushed to drug
stores to get more supplies,” he said.
Mr. Sajoh also said the supplies in the Hospitals were
overstretched due to the high number of casualties.
He also said most of the injured were taken to the Federal Medical Centre, while only a few were admitted to the Specialist hospital.
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