Sadly, healthcare in my dear country Nigeria, is one of those things that have not gotten better with time like the rest of the world. It has only gotten worse. And how can it not, when the government doesn’t even try to make it adequate for the citizens? All they do is fly out of the country the moment they have a slight fever.
The rate at which Nigeria is losing her doctors is alarming. More and more doctors are relocating to countries with better prospects and opportunities. They’ve realized that since the government refused to plan for them, they’d take matters into their own hands.
And for those that remain in the country, they’re always beset by frequent strike actions. Doctors and the government have been in constant war over pay, resources, and even infrastructure. And who suffers for all this? The common masses. While saving a life is important, the doctors and nurses do it for a living, which means they do it to get paid. So, when that money is not forthcoming, they’ll have little motivation to keep it up.
There are so many things about our healthcare that need to be revamped. If the government were to even give them ten percent more attention than they’re currently doing, so many lives would be saved. And if proper authorities took it upon themselves to curb and fight careless doctors who didn’t take the lives of their patients seriously, Nigerian hospitals would not be the scary place that it is today.
I’m the kind of person that doesn’t fall sick easily, the last time I went to the hospital was early last year. I went there twice. Once, I went with my sister, and the other time I went to run some tests just before I left Lagos. They were different hospitals, by the way.
Before this, I used to be a regular visitor to the hospital, not as a patient though. I’m Catholic, and I’m a legionary. One of the duties I was assigned along with my brothers and sisters was to visit the sick in the hospitals in my vicinity. And I did it for a long time, different hospitals every weekend. We spoke to the sick and prayed with them, reminding them that no matter how bleak their situation seemed, they were not alone.
As a result of this, I’ve seen quite a number of hospital cases, more than my fair share I must add. So, picking one for my best and worst moment will be a bit tricky.
I went to work as usual one Saturday with my brothers and sisters (I mean my legion brothers and sisters) and we were carrying out our duty as we were used to. Talking to the sick and comforting them, reminding them that there were still people in the world who cared about them.
While we were doing this, a car drove in laden with an accident victim. In my life, I had never seen so much blood. I can’t even begin to describe just how bad this man looked because, for a while after that moment, I had PTSD. It was that bad, and the man needed help immediately.
We watched as they wheeled him in and hurried him to the theatre for immediate medical attention. We continued with our work, not bothering about the accident victim again because we believed he was receiving care. To our shock, less than thirty minutes later, we watched in horror as he was being wheeled back out and into the car.
He was still alive, but barely hanging on. He was in no state to be moved, he had to be treated immediately! One of us went to ask one of the nurses what was happening and she said the doctors said they couldn’t treat him. Why? Because he was most likely going to die.
This is something we’ve probably heard of frequently in Nigeria, hospitals will reject patients so they don’t die under their roof. Instead of thinking of saving lives, they prioritize saving face. We watched helplessly as the wounded man was driven out, probably in search of another hospital. What could we do? It’s not like any of us had any knowledge of medicine.
We never learned about what later happened to that man, and I pray he survived even though I know that would be a miracle. At that moment, I realized that life wasn’t as sacred as we thought it was. It’s the same as going to the police and expecting justice, they’ll fail you miserably. The same can be said for doctors!
But then, just like doctors and police, they’re not all bad. And I’ve also had a good experience with hospitals. Surprisingly, this story I’m about to tell you also happened in the same hospital, although it was months later.
I had gone there to see a friend who was sick and while I was there, a woman and her two daughters came in with cartons of biscuits and crates of soft drinks which they started sharing with everyone they could set eyes on. When I asked my friend why they were doing all that, I was told that the woman was just discharged from the hospital a few days ago. It was only by the grace of God that she even survived. And the compassion of one of the nurses. The nurse in question carried her matter for head as they say in pidgin. The woman needed surgery, but since she was unable to pay for it, the hospital kept her on hold.
It was this nurse that kept her through that tough time until her family was able to raise the money. Many times, the nurse stayed back late just to make sure the woman got all her necessary drugs. The woman was certain that the only reason she was alive was because the nurse took a vested interest in her case, if not she would have died long before her family could raise the money for the surgery.
So, the moment she was out, she gathered even more money and came not just to thank her, but to show her appreciation to the ward that housed her during that time. The elderly woman hugged the nurse and was even going to kneel in appreciation, making the nurse cry. The nurse said she only did her job, she didn’t have to go to all that length.
This was heartwarming for me, and it was really good after my prior experience with the hospital. It reminded me that there were still health practitioners who cared about the life of the person and not the money of the patient. Knowing that we still have such people in our healthcare force makes me believe that we still have hope as a nation. Things can’t be all that bad, I’m sure of it.
Imagine how good a nurse has to be for a former patient to come bearing gifts later on. That’s to show you the level of impact she’s had on her! I can only pray and hope that we get more and more people like this into the system. People’s lives are sacred and we should treat them as that, not as money machines that will be kicked out the moment the promise of that money is gone.
We can do better!
