Mother: How my daughter died during Chrisland inter-house sports competition

Blessing Adeniran, the mother of the 12-year-old student of Chrisland International School in the Opebi area of Lagos State, Whitney, has disclosed how her daughter died.

The Star had reported that the student slumped and died during the school’s inter-house sports competition at Agege Stadium in Lagos on Thursday, February 9, 2023.

Taking to her Instagram page on Sunday, the mother of the late student said she was told her daughter slumped and was rushed to the hospital.

Blessing said she immediately rushed to the hospital but had a hard time finding it because she was given the wrong address.

She disclosed that Whitney was pronounced dead after she located the hospital where her daughter was.

The woman added and the late student’s lips and tongue were black.

Blessing 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 (Chrisland) 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 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, by the time I got there, my daughter’s lips and tongue had already turned black.”

She further disclosed that her daughter was taken an immunisation centre, adding that there was no proper first aid management in the centre which she said was not a hospital.

“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’,” the woman added.

Confirming the incident, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the incident has been reported to the police.

“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,” Hundeyin disclosed.

The Star

Segun Ojo