Tragedy struck at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt, following the sudden death of a young resident doctor, Dr. Oluwafemi Rotifa, who reportedly collapsed after a marathon 72-hour call duty.
Rotifa, popularly known as “Femoski” among colleagues, was said to have been the only doctor attending to patients at the Emergency Room for three consecutive days before retreating to the call room to rest. He reportedly slumped there and could not be revived, despite efforts at the Intensive Care Unit.
Until his death, the late doctor was a former president of the Port Harcourt University Medical Students’ Association (PUMSA) and was registered with the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council, awaiting placement abroad.
Confirming the incident, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Tope Osundara, described the death as preventable, blaming it on Nigeria’s overstretched health system.
“What happened is that he was on call in the Emergency Room. Afterward, he went to the call room to rest, and it was there that he died. Unfortunately, he was the only one attending to the patients,” Osundara said.
He lamented that the excessive workload had strained the young doctor’s health, calling it “a painful death on duty.”
Osundara urged government to urgently support Rotifa’s family and initiate reforms to end what he described as dangerous levels of burnout among doctors.
“The few doctors left in this country are overworked, underpaid and poorly motivated. Government must look into remuneration and ensure immediate replacement of doctors who resign or emigrate. Otherwise, this cycle of needless deaths will continue,” he warned.
He further noted that the mass exodus of Nigerian doctors abroad has left those remaining stretched thin, often covering double or triple shifts without rest, to the detriment of both doctors and patients.
“When a doctor is mentally, physically and emotionally broken, he cannot render quality care. It is the patients who ultimately suffer the most,” he stressed.
Since the news of Rotifa’s death broke, tributes have poured in across social media. Friends and colleagues described him as diligent, selfless and deeply committed to his patients — a promising young doctor whose life was cut short by a system he served with dedication.
