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Some few days to Christmas, at about 3am my phone rang. I was in the loo responding to a chat from a friend on a thread on Facebook.
I ignored the other phone as it rang because I thought whatever it was, it wasn't coming from the hospital so I was fine. I would return the call when I was done. I picked the phone when I got to the room and checked the missed call icon and the name popped up. It was my friend I was chatting with moments back. So I dialed the number again. It rang and a distressed voiced almost dragged it's owner through the receiver into my room. "Doc, my wife just drank some poison!". Over the last 5 days, I have lost 2 patients with symptoms in keeping with Covid.
1. The first came in on the 25th when I had to urgently dash down to Jos to meet with a partner who had recently just arrived from the US. The patient was said to have started having fast breathing, fever and cough. Since I wasn't on sit, he was urgently referred to the small PHC here, he was given some drugs and discharged home. He died in the dead of the night. 2. Second patient came in today with respiratory difficult (fast breathe), a high fever, cough, chest pain, all started suddenly over a period of 3days. No history of travels but had contact with the previous case. I was careful to examine and later sanitize properly. I commenced oxygen at 4L/min, gave high dose antibiotics, dexamethazone, and requested for an xray. After my exam, I was querying lobar pneumonia with Covid as a differential. He died even before the test results could return. Any symptoms close to this I find again, I am referring straight to the Covid centre in Kafanchan. It is with mixed feelings that I read the message below of one of our very committed rural doctor, Dr. Micheal Nnamele Chinedu, in the crisis ridden far northeast Nigeria. I pray for God to continue to bless you and find someone else to replace you as you take a bow,. You will be sorely missed.
On this Christmas, we wish to extend our best wishes to our partners out there who have continually worked and walked with us as we gradually grow our Rural Doctor Initiative.
I am just stepping out of the theatre.
We are going to review another case where the rural doctor initiative becomes very vital a tool in enhancing health care in the rural area. The young man is 18years old. He had just climbed up a tree to pluck some leaves for his parent's livestock. They live in a far away village kilometers away from the one I live in. I am not the happiest of doctors today.
Mrs X came to the office distraught followed closely by her pastor. I had just finished setting the second line for two babies, one one and the other 16months old. Her baby, in her friend's embrace, gasped for air. He was 6month old, plumb and healthy looking. I had to ask in disguise, "what are you feeding him?". " I am practicing baby friendly" came the reply. I planted this tree sometime this year and about a week ago I was anxious when I saw it shedding all its leaves. I thought it was dying off.
But then, I and my Colleague, Onyeka didn't give up. We kept at watering it and hoping it would survive. The rural area where I practice is bedeviled with social vices ranging from armed robbery to fulani herdsmen attack to rape to assault etc. On this fateful day as I had just had lunch(at 6pm) after a hectic day, the phone rang. It was the hospital calling. I picked the phone and answered rather shruggingly, "hello". The voice at the other end was that of Emma, the afternoon shift nurse. "Sir they have just rushed in an emergency. The person's intestine is outside, they said he was stabbed".
So yesterday the little facility serving mostly the rural poor applauded the tenacity of the kefas.
Mrs kefas is the mother of Bangeskiya whom she delivered via CS and we almost lost both mother and child. |
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