“I Want My Leg Back” – Cries Four Year Old Girl Whose Leg Was Wrongly Amputated

Life has never been the same for 4- year-old Adamu Rukayya, whose legs were wronly amputated, due to a wrong diagnosis she received at a private hospital in Kaduna, after being treated for a wrong ailment.

A member of the family, Abubakar, said that the little girl, who is a nursery two pupil, had been asking everyone who cared to listen to her where her leg is. Abubakar also disclosed that little Rukayya, who apparently does not know the details of what happened, still tells everyone that she wants her leg back. Especially when she sees her mates playing around.

Punch reports that the parents of the little girl had become too depressed to talk about the ordeal, so Abubakar spoke to correspondents on their behalf. It all started when Rukayya complained about having a headache, and her parents took her  to Salama Hospital, which was their family hospital. She was treated and given medication, when there was no improvement on her health she was taken back to the clinic.

On Rukayya’s admission, the doctors informed the parents that she would be given a transfusion through one of the veins in her leg because they could not find any on her hands. After the transfusion, the leg became swollen, and medical doctors told them to take her home and administer ice therapy.

“When that didn’t work, Rukayya was taken back to the hospital on October 12 where the parents met the hostile staff, and when they examined the leg again, they found out they could not handle the case anymore, so they (the parents) were referred to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital at Shika.”

Hafsat Mohammed-Baba, the founder of Global Initiative for Women and Children, taking the matter up, also told newsmen that, upon their arrival at the emergency room of the hospital, the doctor in charge examined the leg and told the parents the leg was already infected and might be amputated to prevent the infection from spreading. The following day, the leg was amputated.

Based on the test conducted on the girl at Salama hospital, the parents were told that their daughter was a sickle cell carrier. Another test was conducted on her to ascertain her genotype, it was revealed that she was AS and not SS as they were told at Salama hospital.

Abubakar lamented that the family had not heard from the hospital, and that instead of showing concern and taking responsibility for their action, they had even denied giving the girl blood transfusion on her leg.

Since then, the little girl has been constrained to use crutches and she has resumed schooling, but not without asking for the whereabouts of her leg.

To read more about little Rukayya’s story, go to www.punch.com