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!". I was rooted to where I was for a sec. I snapped back to reality and started urging him on what to do while trying to stay calm so I don't get him more confused him. "Quickly get her to the nearest hospital", I said. "I can't find my car key", came the reply. "Ok, just go and knock on your neighbor's door and request for help, we don't have time". Luckily he found his key and tucked her in the back seat. By now, she had passed out. Pulse were weak and barely palpable. Her respiratory rate was slightly high Now this is where the story gets very interesting to me. He gets to Jabi federal staff hospital with his wife and they nurse on duty would not accept her. "We don't have space was the reply". By now my friend was truly almost crying begging them. "Please she is dying, even if it is on the ground here, please just give her first aid before we go to another hospital!" Nurse turns around and left him groveling. He picked his almost lifeless body of the mother of 3 kids and dashed to the car again, called me and told me what had happened. I immediately wished I was the doctor on duty there. At the rural area here, we will hardly reject emergencies unless there is absolutely nothing we can do at that point in time. We don't mind managing lives on the ground. At that point in time, whomever you are trying to safe their lives doesn't care where you are managing them in, be it toilet or gravel, all they need at that time is to have their lives saved. Afterwards, you can talk about bed space and other unimportant things. He finally remembered his wife's personal physician whose hospital wasn't so far from where he was, placed a call and the doctor picked, after explaining briefly, the doctor directed him to his clinic and directed the doctor on call on what to do before he arrived. Today his wife is alive by the grace of God alone. All she needed was for her vitals to be stabilized, but no, our government hospitals would rather lazily attend to other issues than emergencies. You know why all these things happen? Because nobody gets to be held responsible because 'na government work, no be my papa work' mentality. The man would have lost his wife even if they had decided to accept her because the lackadaisical manner in which they would have attended to her would have been enough to kill her.
In the rural doctor initiative, we try hard to see that rural dwellers, unlike their city counterparts , are treated with some decorum especially when their health is on the line. Today I am very happy for my friend that the mother of his kids are alive and well. It would have been a different story today but God was so kind. Our attitude to government work has to change. It is very important because these are the institutions that drive the growth of a nation and we must collectively see it as our responsibility to make it work by giving out all at our work places. At the Rural doctor initiative, our watch word is every case is an emergency that must be accorded the required action.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
August 2021
Categories
All
|