LAGOS - At least 10 patients, including a man who fell off a moving train, have been abandoned at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

According to reports, some of the patients have been abandoned by their families for more than 14 months.

The train casualty, a middle-aged man, is still in coma three weeks after he was admitted.
The bed-ridden patients, it was least have incurred huge bills and have yet to be released because their relations had failed to show up to settle the bills.

A 45-year-old patient, Abiodun Oke, who was admitted over a year ago after an accident, is still nursing an injury in his amputated right leg. Oke, who spoke to newsmen on his hospital bed today, said the absence of his wife, a customs officer, and two children had made him nostalgic. ‘’ I am missing my wife and two children, a-13-year old boy and a-nine-year old girl.

‘’They have abandoned me for over 14 months because of my poor state of health,’’ he said and urged the hospital authorities to help contact his family. Oke, who has been given a wheel-chair by the hospital, also called for help from philanthropists and corporate organisations.

‘’I have been released from the hospital but I cannot leave until I settle my N80,000 hospital bill,’’ he added.

Another patient, Peter Madu, 25, from Mbaise in Imo, also said that he was admitted since May 2007, following a motor accident in Apapa, Lagos. He said he required surgery to correct a major dislocation on his legs.

‘’ I have been abandoned here for over a year by my brother who has failed to help me or get other relations to assist me.

‘’The hospital says I can’t be operated on since I have already incurred a N200, 000 bill.
‘’I can’t walk because of pains and to eat is a problem as I am not being served meals any longer,’’Madu said.

Speaking on the plight of the abandoned patients, Mrs Chibuzo Okpara, Deputy Head of the Social Welfare Department at the hospital, said some of the indigent patients had been referred to the department for assistance.