Doctors
behaving badly By Rotimi
Oyekanmi
M Y colleague,
Austin Edemodu, a gentle, amiable guy who reports on Business
for The Guardian on Sunday is dead. He died in the
early hours of Monday March 3. But I was not surprised, which
is why I must alert Nigerians about what is going on in our
public hospitals. This will hardly be news for those who have
had to visit the so called government hospitals, but we must
now take action before premature death sneaks in on us.
Austin, from the account I got from his wife, had been ill
for sometime. But the thing got worse, and he had to be taken
to a private hospital. But that hospital could not handle his
case, and he was immediately referred to the Lagos University
Teaching Hospital (LUTH). A surgery had to be carried out,
which was done, I think, on Saturday March 1. The next day,
the Editor of The Guardian, Mr Debo Adesina, called
Austin's wife from the newsroom to ascertain her husband's
condition, but the wife broke into tears midway into their
conversation. The Editor then decided to go to LUTH
immediately, to see things for himself. I went with him.
They call the place Ward B3, for men. When we entered, it
was a bit crowded, since it was visiting period, but the ward
was dirty. Some of the beds didn't have sheets, and some of
those that had were of different colours, an indication that
the patients occupying them must have brought the sheets. At
that big ward, there was only one nurse, and a few attendants,
to look after about 30 or so patients, half of who were in
some form of pain. When Mr Adesina asked for Austin from the
nurse, he pointed to a bed some metres away, and when we got
there, the sight was very, very appalling.
Austin was in a coma. He was not wearing any dress, except
for a sheet that covered his waist. He was, at that time,
breathing with the aid of a life support device, which was
improperly placed. What whoever planted the device on him
simply did, was to pass a tiny rubber which was attached to a
dirty cylinder into one of his nostrils. We saw his wife, who
looked very confused with a few relatives. For some minutes,
my editor and I watched Austin as he struggled to remain
alive. His eyes had rolled over, and he was totally unaware of
our presence. When we asked his wife what had happened, she
said Austin had been operated upon, and that he was alright
the whole of Saturday March 1. But between that night and
Sunday morning, he slipped into a coma. The most disgusting
thing was that, when she asked the nurses why her husband's
condition had suddenly deteriorated, she was given a very
vague explanation.
When she expressed apprehension, the nurses asked whether
she was a doctor, who would take care of her husband. Can you
believe that? Another shocker: We asked the only nurse on duty
if we could meet with a doctor on duty to really ascertain why
Austin was left in that state. Although the nurse was polite,
she told us that there was no doctor around! I am sure if she
knew that it was the Editor of The Guardian that asked
the question, she would have lied. I returned to Austin's
bedside, and concluded within me, that there was no way he
could survive. My editor agreed with my reasoning, and we went
back to the office, exchanging very few words. By the next day
when I got to the office and was told that Austin had died, I
was not surprised.
But I was angry about one thing: Why would the doctors
wheel a patient that had just been operated upon to a ward
with no intensive care? And why would a doctor not be on duty
at any time at a federal hospital? Even if the government is
not funding the hospital the way it should be, is that enough
reason for them to abandon their duty posts? And who knows
whether poor Austin died from the complications arising from
the major surgery that was performed on him. A patient was
operated on, wheeled into a ward and abandoned on a life
support system and simply left to die. What manner of doctors
are we producing in this country these days? Where are the
norms of medical practice? How far has the Medical and Dental
Council been monitoring the behaviour of doctors in both
public and private hospitals? Even the nurses too are not left
out. Some of them no longer offer soothing words to dying
patients, except harsh ones.
As I looked at Austin, I wondered what the Minister of
Health was doing. I wondered if he had visited LUTH in the
last one year, to see the level of decay. More importantly, it
dawned on me that if I had been in Austin's shoes, I would
have received the same treatment. I felt very sad and ashamed
of the system.
However, I feel journalists across the country should
henceforth be challenged to expose these inadequacies in our
country. The Nigeria Union of Journalists should lead in this
regard, rather than embark on fruitless media tours of the
states, which it did with Professor Jerry Gana recently. The
various NGOs must also do more to expose these problems, and
demand for sanctions to be applied when the norms of medical
practice are flagrantly violated. The government must be told
that problems exist, and there must be a strong demand, backed
by appropriate civil action if the need arises, that the
necessary facilities be provided. It is sad that we hear so
much about corruption taking place in high places, when
ordinary citizens die like chickens in public hospitals. For
Austin Edemodu, there is nothing to worry about now.
Oyekanmi is on the staff of The
Guardian
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