Unless a miracle happens, or the Federal Government urgently intervenes
to fly Mrs Queeneth Owolabi abroad for treatment, she would have her
toes and fingers amputated due to gangrene
infection.
Mrs Owolabi is a surviving cabin crew on the ill-fated Associated Airlines plane that crashed in Lagos two weeks ago.
But for her husband’s resistance, the amputation would have been done
yesterday or today at Nigerian Air Force, NAF, base hospital in Ikeja,
where she had been hospitalised since the crash.
Mrs. Owolabi survived the crash alongside six others, although two of
the survivors later died at the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital, LASUTH.
Vanguard gathered, yesterday, that the husband of the victim was making
frantic efforts to reach the Federal Government for his wife to be flown
abroad for treatment to stave off the amputation, especially as the
government was said to be responsible for her treatment thus far.
Efforts to reach him proved futile as his
mobile phones
remained switched off yesterday and it was also not possible to speak
with the medical team at the hospital as movements in the victim’s ward
was restricted by military personnel.
National President of Nigerian Airlines Cabin Crew Association, NACCA,
Mr. Charles Onuoha, who confirmed the development, appealed to the
Federal Government to urgently come to the rescue of the crash victim.
According to him, Owolabi’s 10 toes and the five fingers of the left hand have been marked for amputation because of the infection that had set in.
He said:
“We are calling for referral for overseas treatment, a post-trauma
stress assessment and de-briefing for Mrs Quinneth Owolabi, and her
colleague, Miss Toyin Samson, currently on admission at Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Lagos.“We are appealing for
government’s intervention because that is the only thing that can stop this amputation.”
