Young Doctor Dies After 72-Hour Shift at Rivers Teaching Hospital

Resident doctor dies after 72-hour emergency room shift at RSUTH.
NARD raises alarm over dangerous workload and burnout among doctors.
The deceased was reportedly ill but still went on duty due to hospital demands.

Dr. Oluwafemi Rotifa, a young resident doctor serving at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), has tragically died after reportedly working a continuous 72-hour shift.

Eko Hot Blog reports that Rotifa, who was on call duty in the emergency department, reportedly collapsed after heading to the call room to get some rest.

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He was later found unconscious and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

According to medical colleagues, the doctor had been battling malaria but still reported for duty and carried out his responsibilities. His death has sparked renewed concerns about the unsafe workload medical professionals in Nigeria face.

Dr. Tope Osundara, President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), described the situation as alarming and condemned the excessive working hours resident doctors are forced to endure.

“Doctors are experiencing extreme burnout and the workload is out of control. We’ve raised concerns about this repeatedly, but little has changed. In this case, he had just reviewed a patient and went to rest. He was later found on the floor, apparently having fallen from the bed,” Osundara said.

He added:

“It’s disturbing that some of our members are on call for nearly the entire month. Ideally, no doctor should even be on a 24-hour call shift, let alone 72 hours.”

“Though he had malaria, he still went to attend to patients. Unfortunately, the strain and exhaustion took a fatal toll on him.”

The incident has reignited calls for the restructuring of doctors’ shift schedules across hospitals in the country to prevent further loss of lives from avoidable stress-related causes.

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