On Sunday, 10th January 2016, just few days ago, as I drove to church, I came
across an accident scene on Oregun road; a mobile police man had been thrown
off his bike after hitting a turning Hilux van. (Whether he should have been
riding a bike that if ordinary citizens tried riding would have been seized is a story
for another day.)
Well the First Aider in me kicked in as I promptly parked, joined ohers who had stopped and checked
him, only a few bruises were noticeable, but after asking how the accident
happened and learning he had literally been thrown across the hilux and landed
head first, it was decided it would be better to rush him to the nearest hospital
for proper check up.
I volunteered to take him to the hospital, hoping my Red Cross membership would be vial to getting him attended to promptly.
With hazard lights blinking and horns blaring I made for the
hospital as fast as I could and drove into the medical emergency ward. The attendant
on duty (I don’t want to dignify by calling her a nurse as I believe a nurse
would have been concerned with lives.) flippantly replied, “We don’t handle
accidents here; find your way to the surgical emergency for accident cases”. I thanked
her and she went back o disinterestedly doing whatever she was before we got
there.
We went further down to the surgical emergency. We got there
a few minutes past 8am, and first things first we collected a card, filled it
and were asked to sit, after sitting till past 10am, a nurse finally came and
gave him a shot of TT. The wait continued until he was finally attended to
around 11am. With drugs being written down and him being advised to take an
x-tray.
I was baffled because if he had any internal injuries
chances are the man might just collapse and die on his way home. (Well
thankfully he didn’t and he is recovering well now.)
Anyway that aside, those three hours in the surgical emergency
of that hospital showed me a lot and taught me about how sanctity for human
life has become degraded.
An armed robbery victim was rushed in from a private
hospital,(name withheld) he had been cut severely by the robbers and the private hospital had
apparently done what they could before transferring him to this particular
Government hospital,(Name withheld but your guess is as good as mine) hence he came in heavily bandaged and with an iv line
attached to him. However he was still losing a lot of blood, and groaning in
pain. It was a Good Samaritan that had spotted the man being robbed and ‘macheted’
and had rushed him to the hospital even though he was wearing only a boxer
shorts and t-shirt.
As a first Aider my heart went out to him, and I thanked God
he had been brought into the hospital (As a first aider your Job ends there)
and I expected to see the hospital staff swing into Action. Alas they continued
their banters as if nothing had happened. The driver of the makeshift ambulance
was accompanied by two staff of the private hospital who presented some papers
to the people at the reception desk. Lo and behold they pronounced first go and
get a card. next they began to complain, saying a whole(name of private hospital) sending us a paient. anyway, a card was gotten and filled and then the next pronouncement shook
me to my bones.
“We are sorry there is NO BED!”
What? This must be a joke I guessed, but lo and behold the
patient whose survival depended largely on being attended to immediately, was
left lying and groaning in the back of the Volvo van(makeshift ambulance) for
over 30minutes. I would walk out and back inside the ward with tears on my
face, I went to the ambulance severally, the man was coherent intermittently, but
there was nothing I could do at that point. The man needed urgent attention by
qualified medical personnel.
Eventually a woman who seemed to be coordinating finally
asked that one woman go take the vitals of the casualty, and I heard another
response that shook me to the bone.
Emi ti close o, mo fe
ma lo le. In English: me I have closed o, I want to go home.
I wondered what happened to the sanctity of human life. Finally
his vitals were taken, a bed was brought out from somewhere inside, a patient
in the emergency ward transferred to that bed, and then the emergency
bed/stretcher taken out to bring the casualty in. AFTER ALMOST AN HOUR!!!
Immediately he was brought in, they all began running helter-skelter
to save his life, and I shook my head at the hypocrisy. As far as I was
concerned if that man dies his blood is solely on the Surgical Emergency staff
of the big government hospital in Ikeja.
What or who then do we blame?
The lack of beds?
The lackadaisical attitude of the staff?
Do we need divine intervention in the medical line?
If a teaching
hospital can treat human life this way, then what do we expect from other
hospitals?
Or do we need some staffs to be sacked so others can sit up?
As I shared my experience with a fellow staff in the office this
morning she reminded me of the case of a mutual friend who was shot a few years
ago by robbers and rushed to this same hospital. Lo and behold, NO BED!!!
How can this worrisome trend be allowed to continue? What is needed to be done?
DIVINE INTERVENTION OR SCAPEGOAT NEEDED?
