Some patients are buried alive in Nigeria due to lack of life-saving equipment, doctor warns

Nigerian doctor Arinze Onwumelu, who is based in Canada and known as Dr Zo, says many government-owned hospitals in Nigeria lack defibrillators, heart monitors and ECG machines. In an Instagram video, he warned that the shortages can prevent staff from diagnosing and treating potentially reversible cardiac emergencies. He recalled working at the Federal Medical Centre in Umuahia and described the death of a 12-year-old boy when oxygen and a nebuliser were unavailable. Onwumelu urged authorities to address hospitals’ equipment needs and rejected calls for him to buy the equipment himself.