Mr. Gideon lives in one of those thick, almost forgotten, rural areas along the Gurara Dam road with his little lovely family. They were a happy nuclear one with really no hunger for the luxuries of life, just contending themselves with the little pleasures a subsistence life style could afford, until life happened. On the 5th of November, however, the tides of pleasure turned sour against them. His only son, Samuel, took ill. Because there were no doctors available in this community, he opted for a local concoction, made of herbs and roots that were mixed and fed to sick people. His son's case, however, became worse that he convulsed severally for days. His father sensing something sisniter dashed to get help from a friend who referred him to a quack health practitioner somewhere in hakilibu, along Kaduna abuja road. On reaching there, he was admitted, given some injections and some Iv meds of which he didn't know their names. He was on admission there for over 5days and seeing no improvement for his child, he sought for further help, and some prying eyes bade him to try the foltz clinic in katari. On arriving here, just as I made my way through the gate, we almost collided as he held his almost lifeless son looking frustrated, fear-struck and shaken. I had the nurse on duty take his vitals and when I examined him afterwards, I realized he was bleeding from the mouth from where he had bitten his tongue from the several episodes of convulsions he had had. He appeared pale, febrile with altered consciousness. He could barely breathe. You see the thing about experience is that, it hits you with the reality of the end even before you begin. I had seen the end before I touched him. We attempted to access his veins to commence transfusion but this took almost the whole day. His veins had collapsed from the lack of blood and, possibly, hypotension caused by the shock. After several pricking we got lucky, took some samples and commenced testing. He had strongly positive malaria parasites and his HB level was a pantry 6g/DL. At this point, he was already gasping for air. We had no oxygen. We needed blood urgently. This is one funny part of the story. The student lab technician opted to donate some of his blood for the boy. I schooled him briefly on the process and created an ambience of confidence around him. I could see the fear in his eyes as he had never donated before. After donating, about 10min later, he noticed he was sweating and almost falling, he was so frightened I could swear he turned white, I almost transfused him with the same blood back to avoid "stories that touch". We got the blood but before we could even commence transfusing, the child gasped one last time and became still in his father's arm. I refused to look at the father in the face as he kept asking whether the child was going to be fine after having the blood. I patted him on the shoulder and took off my gloves. Reality appeared to dawn on him in the most cruel of manners possible. He held his son close to his chest and cried. He picked himself up and walked out the gate sobbing. The number of lives quacks and ignorance have claimed in our clime is egregiously alarming. There appears to be no system in place to check them. The arm of the law is so short that it can't even reach lawbreakers in the urban areas take more of the most remote of rural areas. Sometimes I sit back and wonder what life for these people around here will look like without the foltz medical centre. Two doctors, a matron, a registered nurse and community health extension workers serving over 200000 people. If only they understand the magintide of support the kateri medical team is providing for the communities here, they would have appreciated God some more for them. As I think of Mr Gideon today, I can only bless God for the team in the States and wish that something drastic will sweep our health system in such a way that all the encumbrances to quality health care will be cleared off and the very indigent can access the most basic of health services. The Foltz Medical centre attempts to educate the people who people on the need to embrace modern health care services as against traditional ones and through outreach services, take basic health care to the people living into the most remote areas that are rather inaccessible to cars or bikes. There is very little the faculty can do when it comes to checking the activities of quacks as it is not a law enforcement agency. Kateri Medical Clinic is operated by the Anglican Diocese of Kaduna Nigeria with the support of Kateri Medical Services, Inc. . The Clinic provides local medical services for the region’s 500,000 people. In addition to the 24 hour a day clinic with reliable water and electricity, a mobile medical van provides “bush” medical service two days a week. It currently costs $3,500 - $4,500 a month to operate the Clinic. Support the work of The Rural Doctor by DONATING to
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