A swimmer representing Delta State collapsed on Monday after completing his event at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Benin City.
Medical personnel at the venue attended to the swimmer and were able to resuscitate him, before attempting to take him to the hospital.
However, officials of Team Delta turned down requests by the medical personnel to have the swimmer taken to the hospital.
One of doctors, who identified himself as Dr S. Elamah, the athlete, the officials from the state didn’t heed their medical advice.
He said, “The athlete had an issue with his heart when he came out of the pool and went down. We played our part to resuscitate him and there was the need to take him to the hospital, but his people refused.
“It is a crime if we see a problem and we don’t attend to it immediately, but what I said was that the athlete should sign that he didn’t want to be taken to the hospital. We call it signing against medical advice.
“I guess their fear was that we might test him for doping, but we are not even on that team.”
