MY FIRST DAY AT WORK!

By Chidiebele Samuel

I cannot hide my excitement! This is my first day at work as a doctor and I am to start my rotation in surgery department. As a house officer, I am the most junior doctor in the profession and meant to work under supervision for a period of one year. I set…

MY SISTER’S DEATH WAS PREVENTABLE!

“Ada, Am I now in the teaching hospital ?” , my sister asked me in a faint ,weak voice.

“Yes”, I replied. “We are in the emergency room of the hospital.”

“Please tell the doctors that I want to live. I don’t want to die”, She said to me

DR ABEL WAS TAKEN!

The surgery was a complex brain surgery on a 28 year old man. It lasted for more than 10 hours and the patient is expected to make a full recovery. After taking the patient to the recovery room, Dr Abel (together with the lead surgeon) briefed the relatives on outcome of the surgery and how his…

TO WHAT BENEFIT…

By Chidiebele Samuel

The condition was really life threatening; a potential killer for the 72 year old. He has a big swelling on one of his blood vessels that if not operated on will likely lead to his death if it bursts. Emma remembers the discussion he had with the surgeon, Dr Ike…

ONE PERSON AT A TIME…

“Don’t mind those idiots calling themselves medical doctors. They don’t even take proper care of their patients like they need to”; the man said. “When my cousin was sick in the hospital, they insisted that she pay before surgery is done. Even after the surgery, my sister ended up dying”; he lamented.

THE UNFORTUNATE OUTCOME!

By Chidiebele Samuel

It was 2.30 in the afternoon and I needed to be back from bank in 30 minutes. As I crossed the junction heading towards the road to my bank to get a new ATM card, I was visibly nervous. The town has seen a spike in Islamist terrorists inspired attacks in…

A BUSY DAY IN CHILDREN EMERGENCY!

By Chidiebele Samuel

Dr Sandra’s shift in the Children Emergency Care room was a particularly busy one. She is currently attending to the most critical of the seven patients in the room. A 2 year old girl with severe form of infection of the blood who is almost in a…

HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE…

By Chidiebele Samuel

At the end of the surgery, the 25 year old man was taken to the recovery room. He just had a successful surgery for removal of a cancer involving the jaw. The good news, according to the managing doctor, is that the cancer responds to…

THE SYSTEM FAILED HIM: THE ENERGY ANGLE!

by Chidiebele Samuel

It was mostly an uneventful call for the young doctor in the Intensive Care Unit(ICU) until this event occurred. A middle aged man was rushed from the ward as an emergency with difficulty in breathing through his tracheostomy tube in need…

VIOLENCE AGAINST HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

There is a worrisome increasing trend of reported violence against health providers in hospitals and places of health care delivery in the country. The most recent being the case in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu, South Eastern Nigeria where agitated relatives…