A Lagos-based teacher and mother of four, Mrs. Gloria Audu, is spending her New Year day at the Mother and Child Hospital, Festac Town, Lagos State, where she is taking care of her three-year-old son, Malaki, who took ill a day after the ‘Boxing day’.
Mrs. Audu, who said she has never stayed out of her home on New Year day since she got married, has been forced by her son’s ill health to do so.
She had planned to attend the traditional wedding ceremony of one of her brother-in-laws today. She had also planned to attend, as usual, the Christian crossover service on the eve of the New Year. All these have gone with the winds, courtesy of her son’s unexpected ill health.
Despite her present condition, she has vowed not lose her sense of customary yearly resolution.
According to her, her New Year resolution is to work harder to achieve greater things, things she couldn’t achieve in 2016.
According to her, she knew she would not return home with her son until after the New Year when the Pediatrician assigned to her son did not talk about a possible discharge of her three-year-old son as at Thursday morning.
But, instead expressed doubts if the boy would recover fully from the malaria parasite ailment in another one week. Audu noted that Malaki suddenly started running temperature when he woke up from sleep one early morning.
As a first aid, she gave her little son Paracetamol, but instead of getting relief, the fever continued, this prompted her neighbour to prescribe antibiotics, which she also gave to the boy, but he didn’t get better.
“Some hours later, after giving my son these self medicated drugs, his condition did not improve. I was forced to take him to the Mother and Child Hospital, Festac Town, to avoid any ugly complications. Just in 2014, I lost my daughter due to complications from convulsion.”
Malaki is on admission in the children’s ward. “When the doctors who attended to us insisted that Malaki must be admitted in the hospital, I was scared but also relieved because the medical personnel in the hospital are very efficient as thy promptly attended to my son.
“We couldn’t hold him for hours because he screamed every time we touched him. It’s worst when it’s your own child because all you want is to take the pain away for him; I was heart broken to see my son go through such pain,” she said.
“I was aghast when the doctors pronounced after a thorough medical check that my son has Chickenpox.”
Aside Mrs Audu and her son, Mr. and Mrs. Okonkwo are also celebrating the New Year day at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State. Their children will be at home with grandma without their ever vibrant parents.
The couple is in the hospital treating the dreaded ailment, Hepatitis B.
While the husband is down with Hepatitis B, the wife is in the hospital taking care of him. For the couple, the only thing that matters is how to pay the hospital bills and get home after treatment.
But, it is a difficult one as the health condition isn’t getting better in a hurry.
At the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, Delta State, the situation is different as almost all the patients were prematurely discharged from the hospital before the New Year as the medical staff commenced on a two-week warning strike to press home their demands.
Many sick Nigerians are celebrating their New Year in different hospitals across the country due to ill health.
For some Nigerians, the story is gloomy as they lost family members, friends and colleagues.
Instead of having the hope of full recoveries just as it was in the case of the Audus, their loved ones are in the mortuaries.
Sunday Telegraph’s visits to a few selected hospitals in the country, revealed that some medical facilities were filled to the brim with patients. Patients, whose relatives could not afford a bed space in some General hospitals, had to stay in makeshift beds on the corridors of such hospitals.
These groups of persons are hanging on to dear lives and not thinking of leaving the hospitals anytime soon, as they get little or no attention.
A Lagos-based petty trader, Mr. Bashiru, resident at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ayinke House, has been abandoned at the hospital for lack of money to offset his hospital bills.
He was seen sitting down comfortably with no signs of pressure on his face. “My New Year resolution is to quit football.
Unknown to many others, the sport of football presents with much troubles. I had sustained several injuries playing football but this is the height of it. I have made up my mind to end my career in football.
“I have been in this hospital for the past three weeks, and don’t know when I will be discharged. I just don’t know.
Nobody is talking about New Year again. What matters to me now is my freedom from this hospital. I still thank God for my situation, I have seen patients brought in here dead and also seen pa-tients who suffered fracture and never walked again.
“When I got to the Igbobi Hospital in Lagos, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one in the hospital.
Many young boys who sustained fracture playing football are here, while those who had accident riding on commercial motorcycle made up the largest population here in Igbobi. “I have made up my mind to choose another sport.
I’m still on POP and doctors said the date of my discharge is unknown. “The doctors said the rate of my recovery will determine how soon I would leave this place. Honestly, I never had the premonition that I would not celebrate January 1, 2017 in my house.”
Philip Uvie, a staff of JKB Consultants Limited, Marina, Lagos Island, Lagos, who is also nursing a fractured leg, said: “I sustained this injury when I collided with my opponent on the field of play. My injury got bad because the guy crushed my leg with his studded soccer boot.” A young trader, Kingsley Onwubalili, suffered the same fate, playing football with his friends.
He didn’t collide with anyone, but got injured due to over excitement. He somersaulted and landed badly. Unlike Uvie, he was taken to a traditional bone-setter in Ifetedunu, in Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State.
He said, “I didn’t know I would be celebrating my New Year in a hospital. I prepared for a colourful celebration but as it stands, I’m cut off from that colourful celebration. There is no assurance that I’ll be discharged anytime soon. I’m not thinking about celebrating the New Year Day again.”
Fracture of the leg bone has denied the footballer his full celebration as he is being treated in the private home of a female bone-setter, popularly known as Okuoba in Ifetedunu. His New Year resolution is to gain admission into the university upon recovery.
He said: “We were playing a football match as we had four different teams. The system was that the team that first scored two goals against its opponent would be declared winner of the first leg. So, my team defeated the other three teams and we became the champion.
“I scored a deciding goal and in that excitement, I began to summersault. I made the first back flick and landed well, then on the second one, I landed on a stone, which twisted my leg and my bone cracked, thus sustaining a compound fracture. It happened in Lagos but I was taken to Anambra to Okuoba’s place where it is believed I would get the best treatment.
“No man wishes himself misfortunes but when it comes, what can one do? I didn’t plan to celebrate my New Year or take my New Year resolution at Ifitedunu, but see where I am today.” 52-year-old Michael Obong, a failed kidney patient who is waiting for his surgery appointment on January 9, said, “My wish for the New Year is to be alive. I hope I wake up and feel good each day.
It makes me tired, weak and hard to concentrate. That is why I want to go for it. My wish is to be alive after the surgery. The issue is not about celebrating the New Year Day, there is no big deal about this, the most important thing is for one to be alive.
“One of the major complications with Kidney transplant is the issue of getting the right match and sometimes, it doesn’t work. That is why I said my wish is to live and at the same time, not to live in pains of suppressants.
Once I survive this ailment this year, I will survive many more years. I’m having problems having a good sleep at night and these are the things doctors want to monitor before the operation,” he said.
For Mr. Kenneth Onyebuchi, he was rushed to the hospital by neighbours when he collapsed in his living room for 3+ Malaria. When he noticed that he was getting weak and feeling cold, almost every evening, he sensed Malaria and went on self medications. He combined the treatment of malaria with that of typhoid fever but didn’t get better.
According to him, he had already planned and bought fire crackers for the New Year celebration, until his health worsened.
Right now, Kenneth is not talking about the fire crackers or any other activities; he is praying and fighting for his life. “I’m not talking about my plans for the celebration; my main concern is to get well.
The doctor said I have to stay back for some days so that he will monitor my health properly.
He noted that I may be discharged on January 1, if I finish my injections. I have been on ‘drips’ since last night that I was brought here. Doctor said the malaria was much and required serious attention.”
I will serve God forever, if He heals me
“Please, pray for me. My only desire and expectation for 2017 is to get out of here. I have strong belief that I will make it. I believe in miracles. I want God to heal me. I will serve Him till my last day on earth,” an AIDS/Tuberculosis patient at Infectious Disease Hospital, Ebute Metta, said.
“If God will heal me, I will serve Him forever and I will stop fighting people on the slightest provocation,” said a young man, Egbunna Obi, who engaged on Christmas eve fight and ended up in the hospital after a piece of broken bottle almost cut off his intestine.
It was a gory site as Egbunna almost lost his life in a battle to save his girlfriend, who was being sexually harassed on Christmas Eve by a half-drunk man in his early 30s.
Currently, he is in a hospital (Name withheld) in Festac Town, Lagos State, while his co-fighter, Afolabi Oludare, is in detention at the Police Station. 42-year-old Nkeiru Ofoje, who was admitted to Mother and Child Hospital, and later referred to Federal Medical Centre, Lagos Island, for fibroid surgery, will be spending her New Year Day in hospital.
A native of Umuoji in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nkeiru is meant to spend, at least, a week in the hospital after surgery.
As the practice demands, the patient will be admitted into the hospital as inpatient, 48 hours before the surgery, to enable the medical team examine the patient’s pause, blood level and other things before the surgery.
For the surgery that took place yesterday, she became an in-patient on Thursday. Having successfully undergone the surgery, she has to be monitored for one week before being discharged. The only thing in her mind now is to be free of any complications. Bernard Ajoku expects more wealth and God’s healing upon his family.
Ajoku was set to travel to Imo State after Christmas but this was truncated by his wife’s ill health. He said, “My wife and I were to travel to Mbano, in Imo State for New Year Day celebration after Christmas, but that plan was aborted by my wife’s sudden ill health resulting from being hypertensive.
“The main reason I was traveling to my hometown was to be around while the roofing of my house is going on. Christmas was good. We ate and drank with friends and the rest of my family members but on Thursday, we noticed that she started breathing heavily. She took her normal drugs and went about her normal duties until she collapsed.
“We rushed her to the hospital and the doctor said her Blood Pressure rose inconsiderably.
The doctor said the attack was due to excitement and warned that high excitement is a risk factor for hypertensive patients.
“He said the situation can lead to partial stroke. So, this is how we ended up at the Ituah Hospital, trying to stabilize my wife’s BP. I don’t know when she will be discharged as the doctor has not said anything about that.”
Another married woman, Mrs. Grace Igwe, who put to birth on Boxing Day, through Caesarian Section, will be celebrating her New Year Day at the Ajeromi Ifelodun General Hospital. She said her expectation for the year was to have what it takes to train her baby boy. Ngozi Asika, a student of Asaba Tech, is hoping that God heals her father, who was involved in a motor accident on Christmas Day. She said, Christmas was horrible for her family.
My father had an accident on his way home. He was coming from Lagos to Asaba. The bus he was traveling in collided with a truck carrying timber just after the Agbor junction.
“Out of 14 occupants of that mini commuter bus, five people sustained various degrees of injuries. My father’s leg got broken because he was sitting in the front seat.
At first, he was taken to a hospital in Agbor but we decided to take him to the St. Charles Hospital, Onitsha, so as to be close us. Since then, we have been in and out of hospital. My father’s prayer now is to get well. We have forgotten about cooking and any form of celebration on New Year’s Day.”
SOURCE.. NEW TELEGRAPH
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