20/04/2025
SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN SAVED, BUT HER HUSBAND SAID NO...
True Life Story
When Amaka went into labor with her second baby, she was so excited and hopeful she would deliver safely, just like she did with her first child.
She had labored at home for hours before one of her neighbours, who noticed she was in distress, rushed her to the hospital.
At the hospital, the doctors quickly realized something was wrong.
The baby was in distress already, and Amaka’s blood pressure had gone dangerously high.
The only way to save her and the baby was an emergency C-section.
“We need your husband’s consent,” the nurse said to Amaka.
The hospital called him. He arrived 40 minutes later, sweating and visibly afraid.
But when they handed him the consent form, he froze.
His 3 major fears were:
1. “We don’t have money for surgery. Can’t she just push the baby herself?”
2. “I’ve heard stories of women dying during CS. I don’t want to lose my wife.”
3. “Our church doesn’t believe in CS. We believe in divine intervention.”
Despite several hours of pleading from the medical team, Amaka's family, and even other patients in the ward he refused to sign the form.
He kept asking for time.
Time… that Amaka didn’t have.
After about five hours of delay, Amaka went quiet and cold.
Her breathing slowed.
The baby’s heartbeat had already vanished from the fetal monitor.
The doctors rushed her into surgery without his consent under the doctrine of necessity.
But by the time they got into the theatre, it was already too late.
The baby was gone. Amaka was gone too.
Just like that.
But now comes the question no one wants to ask out loud…
Will her husband ever come out of this trauma?
Because while Amaka died that day he didn’t.
And now, he lives with a weight no one can measure:
The silence of an empty room.
The echo of "if only I had…"
The haunting replay of nurses begging, of people shouting, of his wife’s eyes slowly closing.
He lost his child.
He lost his wife.
But more painfully he lost the chance to make it right.
And the world will judge him.
But he, too, is grieving… quietly. Regretfully. Eternally.
Let this be a wake-up call.
Consent should never be a barrier to emergency care.
Ignorance, fear, and blind doctrine should never cost lives.
And silence around male grief and guilt should not continue.
Rest in peace, Amaka.
Rest in peace, little one.
May your story save another.