A student of Chrisland International High School, Opebi, Lagos, Whitney Adeniran is said to have died during the school’s inter-house sports in Lagos.
Whitney’s parents – Dr Michael Adeyemi Adeniran and Mrs Blessing Adeniran – said their 12-year-old daughter died during the school’s inter-house sports activities at Agege Stadium on Saturday.
In the video on her Instagram page on Sunday, the tearful mother said that she was told her daughter slumped and had been rushed to the hospital.
Mrs Adediran said she immediately rushed to the hospital but had a hard time locating it because she was given the wrong address. After she finally located where her daughter was, she said Whitney was already dead and her lips and tongue were black.
Narrating her ordeal, she said: “We drove out of the stadium to the gate, we asked the gatemen (for the hospital), they didn’t know. As we were driving around we were asking people where we can find Central Hospital but they all said they only knew Agege General Hospital. When we couldn’t locate the place we decided to go to Agege Central Mosque and on our way to the mosque, we saw the school bus packed, so we knew we were at the place.
“I jumped down from the car when we saw the school bus and rushed in. I saw the staff that went with her (Whitney) and I asked her ‘Madam where is my child, what happened, why did she faint’ she (the staff) said ‘I don’t know, she’s in there’. I went in there and I saw my daughter’s corpse, Desola (Whitney’s other name) didn’t say anything to me. I went in there and I met my daughter on her deathbed, she was already dead.
“She was drenched, soaked to the skin, water was dripping. I knelt down, I called on God, I shouted, I screamed. I felt her pulse, there was no pulse. My daughter was silent. I asked the doctor what happened to my daughter and he said from the look of things she suffered from cardiac arrest.
“How does a 12-year-old have a cardiac arrest? No pre-existing heart condition, no pre-existing medical condition. She was hale and hearty, she was not sick in any form. Even if she will die from cardiac arrest why should one arrest kill a healthy teenager? Let me state this, that by the time I got there, my daughter’s lips and tongue had already turned black”.
Mrs Adediran alleged that her daughter was not taken to a hospital but an immunisation centre, adding that there was no proper first aid management.
She said: “My child was not taken to a hospital, she was taken to an immunisation centre but that is not even my pain. My pain is there was no proper first aid management, there was nothing that was done for her; she was brought to the hospital dead.
“Because when her medical report came in, it said dead on arrival. When my husband came he came in to pick his child to take her to another hospital, he came in and met her dead. He screamed, shouted, ‘Desola, daddy is here, stand up. What is happening to my child’. My husband knelt down crying begging the doctor ‘help me, this is my first child’.”
On Saturday night, Whitney’s father, Dr Adeniran had broken the pathetic story that went viral.
According to him, his daughter had no health condition or sickness as of when the school bus picked her up for the event
Adeniran, who also said that there was no explanation given to himself and his wife from the school, added that his wife was present at the stadium, but the school did not call her attention to the incident immediately.
He has subsequently called on the Lagos State Government and the police to look into the matter and secure justice for his late daughter.
Adeniran wrote: “To the biggest shock of my life by 1 pm in the afternoon, I got a call from my wife that she was informed that our daughter slumped at the inter-house sport and she was rushed to the clinic.
“My wife was at the venue even before the event started. She was never informed or called until they have conveyed our child out of the venue before they informed her. On arrival of my wife at the health centre where they took my daughter, my daughter was lying dead with her lips black and her tongue black.
“My wife called me urgently, I left my office to the place and found my 12-year-old daughter lying dead on the ground. I asked questions about what happened to my daughter and the school authority could not get me any information as to what happened to my child in their care.
“I gave Chrisland school a healthy vibrant young girl; what Chrisland returned to me is a dead child. My entire family is in deep sorrow but the school authority claimed they know nothing about my daughter’s death and all they know is that my daughter slumped and died”.
Adeniran further said the school had no ambulance or paramedics at the event, except for a nurse he described as a “quack”, who, he said, later confessed that the child died at the stadium
He added: “My question is, what happened to my daughter at Agege Stadium? As a father, I demand answers from Chrisland International High School. I am in deep pain and sorrow right now. If you are a father you will understand my pain. My daughter is highly loved by us. We cherished her existence and we can never allow an institution to gloss over the death of our daughter.
“Since we started asking this question. The school has been asking us to back down from the autopsy and I know they know their way into the system. I am calling on the pathology department of @lasuth to please be honest with their result. Lagos State government, Nigerian Government, please intervene”.
Many Nigerians have taken to the social media to demand justice for the dead child, calling on the government and the police to intervene.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the incident to Sunday PUNCH, said the matter was reported to the police immediately it occurred.
He said: “Yes the case has been reported to the Police. It was reported immediately the incident happened on Thursday.
“The case is presently at the State Criminal Investigation Department and an autopsy is going to be carried out to know the circumstances that led to her death. That’s all the update I have for now”.
The school authority could be reached at the time of filing this report as calls to its administrative lines were unanswered.
Source: Sunday PUNCH
