Authorities of the National Hospital in Abuja on Friday confirmed that eight corpses retrieved from the scene of the bomb blast at the United Nations’ building had been deposited at the mortuary.
The Head of Management Information Services of the hospital, Dr. Tayo Haastrup, who confirmed the number of casualties in an interview with journalists, however, said the number could increase.
He gave the sexes of the casualties as three females and five males. Asked about their nationalities, Haastrup said that would be difficult to give.
He addressed journalists immediately after he came out of the mortuary.
He said, “For now, there are eight corpses in the mortuary. They are three females and five males. We cannot give their nationalities for now.
He said some of the victims had been discharged because they sustained minor injuries. He, however, added that some of those who sustained serious injuries had been moved to the wards.
Haastrup said, “Our doctors have stabilised some of the victims, while some of them have been moved to the wards; a few others have been discharged. “
Our correspondents saw some of the victims with varying degrees of injury in some of the wards, including the emergency, orthopaedic, male and female wards.
A female victim, who was brought to the hospital in a UN ambulance with registration number 201 UN 162, lost one of her legs to the incident.
A relation of hers, who refused to give her name, was seen with her as hospital workers were battling to move her out of the ambulance into the hospital.
A member of staff of the World Health Organisation, Mr. Sunday Agboh, who survived the attack, said he was happy to be alive.
Some members of staff of the world body, who were not affected by the incident, were seen making frantic efforts to ascertain the whereabouts of some of their colleagues. Many of them had blood stains on their clothes.
Also, security personnel and workers at the hospital had a hectic time controlling the sympathetic crowd as the relatives of those who work in the building besieged the hospital to ascertain the fate of their relations and colleagues.
However, due to the large number of victims that were involved in the attack, authorities of the hospital had to appeal to people to donate blood for them.
Also joined in the appeal were corps members, who were seen holding placards with inscriptions such as, ‘Please, donate blood to save lives,’ and ‘Help the blast victims to stay alive by donating blood for their survival.’
The appeal was well received by sympathisers as they trooped to the blood bank section to donate their blood.
A nurse, who attended to the voluntary donors after they were screened, told our correspondent that “at least, we have 500 people who have shown interest to donate their blood.”
By Olusola Fabiyi and Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch
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