The Oladeji Miracle Baby

Comfort Obi

This is a story which passes all understanding. Even the medical doctor in whose hospital this miracle took place thinks so. In all his over 30 years of experience in medicine, Dr. John Ayanbadeji, Medical Director of Agnes and Ephraim Medical Centre, Gbagada, Lagos, a former Consultant to the World Helath Organisation (WHO), said, “I have never experienced it."
Dear readers, if you are a regular of this column, then you know there are so many alleged miracles I don’t believe in. They include those of women who claim they had been pregnant for five to 10 years but had been unable to put to bed. You would notice that when they now put to bed, it would never be in a hospital. It is either in a herbal home, or a prayer house. I usually ignore them. But not this one.
It graced the front page of the Saturday Champion, of March 7, with a screaming headline, MIRACLE 2009:, and a rider, “Woman Gives Birth to 3 Babies in 3 Months.” The photograph of two women, and the three babies was compelling. As I looked at them, I had a feeling that they don’t belong to those who would go to a herbalist or a prayer house. So, I began to read. And I will quote copiously from the publication.
Mrs. Mosunmade Titalayo Oladeji, Secretary to the Governing Council of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where her husband, Kabeer Oladeji, is also a Lecturer, had been married for nine years without a child to call her own. In the early years of her marriage, she was getting pregnant, but always had miscarriages. Thereafter, for about five years, no pregnancy came at all. She said her ovulation was irregular. But in April 2008, she became pregnant, and as if God wanted to suffocate her with joy, a scan indicated she was expecting twin babies – a boy and a girl. On December 13, 2008, she was allegedly delivered of the twin babies. Even in her joy, ill-health would not let her be. Today, it is a headache, tomorrow, it is malaria. She complained to a doctor, who gave her malaria tablets, and advised her to go for a scan because her stomach was too big. But she refused “because of the usual delay which accompany it.”
Towards the end of December, she said she felt a movement “inside my tummy.” She was told it was normal with nursing mothers, and is called Womo womo in Yoruba. Since her stomach was still big, she said she bought a belt, not just any belt, but one imported from Italy! “I had to tie the belt on my stomach for 60 minutes on the first day, the baby moved from up to down. It kept moving as I used the belt…”
Well, things came to a hilt on Saturday, March 2, when she came to Lagos to visit her younger sister. She noticed that water and blood were coming out of her. On Sunday, it became so serious she was rushed to Agnes and Ephraim Medical Centre where a doctor pressed her stomach and asked if she had fibroid. She said no, and the doctor told her it was an infection, and gave her some antibiotics tablets. On Monday, she was asked to go for a scan. “The scan man told me to take some water because they wanted to see the baby that is inside my womb. I said which baby? Am I pregnant? How can there be such when I just gave birth on December 13 (2008)? I argued with him, told him I gave birth on December 13 and had My D and C on DECEMBER 14. (Emphasis mine) . He too was alarmed, and so he started calling doctors to come and witness the situation. He raised alarm that the baby’s head was already coming out,” she said.
Dr. John Ayanbadeji did not believe what was going on. He called the person who carried out the scan, thinking there was a mix-up. But, mercifully, asked that she be taken to the labour room. By 6.10 p.m, she gave birth to a baby boy – Abrahim Miracle Abokabir Oladeji.
Dear Readers, I am happy for this sister. I appreciate what she must have gone through, for nine years, without a child of her own. But I want to ask some questions in order to appreciate this “Miracle”.
Was Mrs Oladeji truly delivered of twin babies on December 13, 2008? If she was, why did she not mention the name of the hospital in Ibadan where she delivered the babies? Who was her doctor in Ibadan? If she truly delivered those twins on December 13, 2008, and delivered another baby in March 2009, and the doctor in Ibadan didn’t know that there was a third baby, then his license should be taken away from him, and his hospital shut down. The meaning is this: By the time she was delivered of the twin babies, Baby Miracle was already six months in her womb. And still, neither the doctor, nor the scan picked it? And there is another curious angle.
She said she had her twin babies “on December 13, and had a D and C on December 14.” How is that? If she was delivered of babies on December 13, why a D and C on December 14? As soon you give birth to a baby, your stomach is pressed very well to enable blood, especially, congealed blood, come out. Where was Baby Miracle when her stomach was being pressed? I know I am a bad science student, but D and C (Dilatation and Curettage) is not carried out on a woman who delivered a baby – in this case, babies – within 24 hours. It is carried out only when a pregnancy is being miscarried, or when a woman wants to abort an unwanted pregnancy. In simple terms, it is evacuation. The only other time it is carried out is as part of treatment of a woman who miscarries each time she gets pregnant. So, who carried out this D and C on Mrs. Oladeji, and why? And there is this bit too.
Dr. Ayanbadeji who delivered Baby Miracle noted that the man who did the scan said the woman was lying, that she did not give birth to a set of twins at all. He also brought his doctor-colleagues, and they said it can’t be true.
I don’t want to say that Mrs Oladeji set out to deceive. I don’t know why she would want to do that. Dr. Ayanbadeji couldn’t explain it. He simply said, in a resigned manner, that it is God’s work. Of course, God works in mysterious ways, but this miraculous claim should be investigated.
Mrs. Oladeji should be taken on by the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA. She should be made to answer some basic questions. In which hospital did she deliver the twin babies? Which doctor delivered her? Or did she adopt the twin babies? If truly she gave birth to these babies, what are we waiting for? The Guiness Book of Records should be contacted.