Writing about the deceased colleague and lecturer, Jossy Achilike, in The NEWS, 17th February, 2003, Akinyemi Onigbinde of the Department of Philosophy, Olabisi Onabanjo University, said plaintively: ‘Jossy is no more with us, lying still in a six-foot-deep chamber, the final residence of all mortals who toil day and night on this side of the divide. He is dead, due more to the negligence of a licensed medical assassin answering to a medical doctor, too arrogant to seek a second opinion on a worsening case until it was well too late to save the precious life of a diligent philosophy teacher and author.’
Joe Igbokwe, a public commentator, told his own story in a recent publication in the Guardian: ‘I had my first experience with Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in 1996. We took our brother to the hospital on Sunday afternoon that fateful day, believing that we had brought him to the highest hospital in the land and that he would get better. We received the first shock when we were asked to go and get the admission fee of some five to six thousand naira. None of us could raise the money immediately and we pleaded with them to admit him and start the treatment till Monday. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. We went, searched and got the money four hours later. By the time succour came to our brother, five or six hours had elapsed. His case worsened and he died.’
There is nothing as tragic as the demise of a loved one and how insupportable it could be when such death is the upshot of want of meticulous care and circumspection on the part of the medical personnel! Life is like an egg in the hands of doctors and nurses. Once it drops through carelessness, the game is over, its nightfall. There is weeping and wailing by the loved ones. Some don’t actually recover from the trauma and loneliness; they soon join the deceased. What becomes of the children of the deceased? Sometimes life becomes a restriction; the breadwinner is gone! [Tears run down my cheek as I write this piece; I remember many known people that have been sacrificed by doctors and nurses on the altar of negligence and dereliction. If only this piece will make a difference…]
What about the widow or widower? Some have to begin life all over again; the disruption is irreparable. Some victims of medical sadism have parents (young or aged); life is never the same for them anymore. The budding or full-blown business of the deceased ultimately risks extinction. In the worst culture of inhumanity, his widow and issues are thrown out of the house while his kinsmen take over all his possessions. The children are forced out of school and the ground is inherently prepared for begging, touting, prostitution or armed-robbery. O medical sadists!
In that piece in The NEWS titled, Jossy Achilike, GoodNight!, Akinyemi Onigbinde concluded: ‘I do not know whether the dead rest or keep labouring after life, and I confess my ignorance as to Jossy’s destination thereafter. But I am convinced that he acted well his nature allotted part in the epic tragedy that is life, and left the stage of life, leaving us with the memory that would not be forgotten in a hurry.’ After perusing the emotive write-up, I wrote the don, commiserating with him and assuring him of life after death. And for the likes of Jossy who, as he observed, devoted his energy to the service of God, eternal life is their reward. This is one consolation for those who have lost their loved ones through the rascality of medical officers.
It is here in Nigeria that doctors and nurses play God in the lives of patients. The patients cannot question their words, prescriptions and administration of drugs. ‘Do you want to teach us our job?’ is the usual exclamation. And so we have had patients that had received wrong prescriptions and died as a result. A physician once diagnosed appendicitis for an acute stomach-ace and gave the wrong prescriptions to the patient. Cases abound of a pair of scissors, cotton wool or a handkerchief being left in the body of a patient after a surgery. When such criminal negligence results in death, the licensed assassins console the relatives: ‘We tried our best but the patient died!’ Since the patient would not rise in this world to inform us of the cause of his death, the doctors always have the last say.
The frequency with which death occurs in our (general) hospitals should be a cause for worry. Sometimes, nurses would abandon pregnant women in the labour room. We have had cases where newly born babies would cry to death without assistance from any quarter. A newly born baby was allowed to fall to the floor just because the nurses wanted to avoid their clothes from being soiled by the jets of fluid that accompanied the birth. Of course, it was only a matter of time before it gave up the ghost! It is as if some medical personnel take delight in inflicting additional pains on their patients. Some belong to the secret society where blood must be denoted. God helps you they are not on duty when medical help is needed!
The reader must be spared of gory details of certain deaths that do occur at Lagos General Hospital (Ayike House) and LUTH. They reflect what takes place in other public clinics in Nigeria. We need to know the number of deaths that takes place on a daily basis in these hospitals and the causes. A woman had attended the antenatal clinics in one of these hospitals. While on labour bed, a nurse appeared, ruptured a membrane in her private part and told the patient to change pad one after the other. Within minutes, all the pads were soaked with blood. Yet, the nurse refused to sign her name. The matron came later to discover the anomaly but the killer nurse could not be identified.
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Some private hospitals in Nigeria are no better than slaughter-houses. There, many die before their time. Sometimes, the physicians will abandon the clinics for other businesses while the untrained nurses watch the gradual exit of the patients from the land of the living. Mind you, the so-called nurses are mere School Certificate ‘medical apprentices’ on salary of N3,500 a month! How worthless is the life of a citizen in these hospitals! This same ‘nurses’ will inject children and eventually disable them. How many infant legs have been condemned by these ‘experts’! Most of the doctors are only interested in money not the good health of their patients. Hence, you see a doctor carrying out an operation with crude tools and even without the assistance of another physician. He emerges from his herbalist-room of a theatre and declares to the bewildered and ignorant relations: ‘We tried our best but the patient died!’
One, all patients must demand explanation for every medical prescription. The practice of not disclosing the name and purpose of drugs to patients to preclude drug abuse is anachronistic; you can’t do that in a responsible clime. The doctors have the duty to instruct patients on the implication of using drugs at the wrong time and without prescription.
Two, the National Assembly must conduct a public inquiry on the number of deaths that have taken place in the last 10 – 15 years in all public health institutions and the causes. Members of the general public, victims of medical sadism, should appear before such committees to state their cases. Appropriate sanctions must follow and for cases of criminal negligence, there must be public prosecution. The same must be done in the states. Each House of Assembly in Nigeria must conduct an open investigation on the recklessness of medical personnel in public and private hospitals.
Three, henceforth, all hospitals – public and private – should have a register of all deaths that occurred and their causes. Such statistics may guide the public in their choice of hospitals. Each local government health department should have a coroner and official autopsy must be conducted before interment.
Four, the government must look into the desirability of banning public medical officers from running private hospitals. Some of those consultants and general practitioners usually prefer to treat patients in their clinics, yet the patients will still die after relatives must have expended fortunes. O absentee consultants and racketeer doctors!
Five, health officials must be handsomely rewarded. Priority must be given to their conditions of service; they must be enhanced. Medical personnel should think of nothing but the safety of their patients. They must possess the basic necessities of life. They need not go on strike before government recognizes this.
Six, medical services should be free for all citizens of Nigeria. First-class health facilities must dot every nook and cranny of Nigeria. A situation where surgery is conducted under the light provided by a torch or GSM handset only confirms our status as failed state. The legislature must enact medical rights, which must be respected by medical officials. Enough of deaths through licensed medical personnel.
First published in December, 2004 (Reprinted following the three-part publication on this page titled ‘God Has Given Me Another Chance’ by Yusuph Olaniyonu, Thursday, September 12, 19 and 26, 2024)
