non-witty title

He was barely six years old. Or maybe five? Probably closer to six. I was with the physician attending to the adjacent patient, attempting to stuff some Vaseline soaked gauze in the nose of a patient with epistaxis. Epistaxis = fancy medical term for nose bleed. Hers was probably due to her uncontrolled hypertension…probably? But also could be due to some other undiagnosed bleeding disorder – hemophilia, van Willie Brand etc etc – who knows. But all she was getting was symptomatic treatment, unfortunately.

But I digress.

I was sorta drawn to the lil kiddo – he was writhing on the bed, barely conscious, while church members were praying for him and binding and casting all sorts from him. His family was nearby, arms folded across their chest with forlon looks on their faces.

As soon as the doc was done with the bleeding shouting lady, he turned his attention to the kid. I glanced through his chart – kiddo was brought about a couple days ago in a comatose state, febrile (fever), nil nuchal rigidity, wheezing etc etc. Diagnosis – bronchopneumonia.

Doc was examining the child, and I was next to him. Then I saw something that broke my heart.

The childs abdomen was grossly distended, his liver and spleen were remarkably enlarged. But I noticed a bunch of healing 3cm lacerations on the surface of his stomach. Like ALL over his stomach. It was like someone took a razor blade and just made multiple cuts on the kids abdominal region. I was like…the hell is that? I had an idea – actually, I knew what it was but I refused to believe it, refused to process it.

I called the kids brother to my side, and inquired. The answer really wasn’t that surprising.

The lil boy got sick about 5 days ago. Was really worsening, so they did what they were used to doing – they took him to a native doctor. You can guess what happened next – mr. quack charged them a ton, muttered a bunch of rubbish into the air, and took a razor blade and started cutting on the boys enlarged stomach in an attempt to… to…? I don’t know. To relieve the pressure? Remove the demons? Heal the child?

Kill the child.

They rushed him to the hospital 2 days later after he was getting worse. Actual diagnosis was bronchopneumonia – bad, but not necessarily deadly. But because of the trauma the kid suffered at the hands of the native doctor, he had super imposed septicemia (bacteria in the blood) from the infection from the cuts with the blade. The combination of both was a deadly. The kid was now barely fighting for his life.

Sorry this is long – and I could go on and on but I’ll stop it here. But it broke my heart because stories like that are not uncommon – they are actually the norm. You hear of pregnant women, little children, etc with easily preventable or curable diseases coming to the doctor when its almost too late – after spending…wasting time and money on quacks and native doctors.

Education is one thing – but how STUPID can one be attimes? Your child is dying, you take him to a native doctor that takes what little money you have, and proceeds to CUT UP your child? And now you run to the hospital with no money and no time – praying for a miracle?

God help us.

In other news – and maybe this is a post for a different day – Nigerian weddings are hilarious. The ceremony was supposed to start at 10:00am, by 10:30am the bride still wasn’t there so the priest decided to start the service. She finally showed up around 10:45am – pastor just told her to literarily run down the aisle as there was no time for niceties. It was actually hilarious – bride still trying to properly place her veil on her hair as she walked down the aisle. Really embarrassing. But seriously – who the hell shows up for your own wedding 45 mins late? Ridiculous.

Anyways – apologies for the long absence. And I cant promise that I’m back for good now. Will probably be in and out as usual. Life has gotten a tab busier and a host of other excuses. But thanks for your time.

p.s this is so random – but does anyone know about the head shot picture trick? Girls use it a lot. Beware of a girl whose pics on facebook are just head shots…. I’m sure you catch my drift.

Laters.