Mrs Amaechi Blames Maternal Mortality On Human Errors

As part of activities to immortalise the late wife of the
Mayor of Port Harcourt, Mrs Caroline Akarolo, friends of the Mayor on Tuesday,
unveiled as safe Motherhood for Caroline Akarolo initiative to check high rate
of maternal mortality in the state.

This initiative was part of the one year memorial activities
in honour of the late Mrs Caroline Akarolo who lost her life after child birth
leaving a set of twins.

Speaking at the event, the wife of the Governor of Rivers
State, Dame Judith Amaechi said it was very sad that the late Mayor’s wife
could die due to human and unethical practice.

She added that proactive measures must be put in place to
check the loss of life due to human recklessness and unethical practices.

Mrs Amaechi urged wives of local government chairmen and
religious organisations to begin advocacy campaign to enable pregnant mothers
attend antenatal at the healthcare delivery centres built by the Rivers State
Government.

Chairman of the event and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of
Health, Dr Godwin Mpi said the lackadaisical attitude of medical and health
practitioners have endangered lives of many patients, especially pregnant
mothers whose cases couldn’t lead to their death.

Dr Mpi decried as worrisome the inhuman relationship between
medical practitioners and patients, describing it as an abuse of the oath of
allegiance and violation of professional ethic sworn to by the health and
medical practitioners.

The State chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association
(NMA), Dr Ibitora Krubo in his speech warned that both doctors and nurses are
culpable in this irresponsible act.

He warned that the NMA would sanction doctors whose actions
either by commission or omission were responsible for the death of pregnant
mothers or the infants at birth and added that a monitoring team would be set
up to visit such hospitals to ensure that sanity was restored in the health
institution.