The spate at which victims of emergency lost their lives due to demands for deposit and police report by hospitals is alarming. MAIRO MUHAMMAD MUDI takes a look at the situation.
Ishaq was a roadside mechanic in Kaduna who after closing for work had to heed to the call of one of his customers whose car broke down in the night. After he completed the work he was about to head home on his motorcycle when he was hit by a vehicle, the driver zoomed off leaving him unconscious.
35-year-old Ali Sani from Kano State was a bureau de change operator in Apapa and in the course of his business, a Lebanese man simply called Bilal invited him to a hotel on the pretext that he needed $50 000 equivalent in Naira but after receiving the money, the Lebanese alongside four Nigerian accomplices who hid in the toilet, descended on Ali stabbing him in several places before making effort to run away. Thought they were apprehended, Ali later died.
Though these cases are different but the causes of their death are similar because the victims did not die immediately after the incidents. The role played by the authorities and individuals, particularly the hospitals contributed a lot to ending their lives.
In the case of Ishaq, his family while accepting his death as the will of God, blamed the society for this nature of death, attributing it to the Nigerian failed system.
The brother of the deceased, Muhammed Ayuba Adamu, while narrating their ordeal to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, in the course of their quest for medical attention for Ishaq in his last moments, described him as a hardworking man.
“He leaves his home as early as 6:00am, sometimes earlier for the workshop. And he closes later than everyone else. But as he was preparing to close from the workshop at bout 10:00pm on that fateful Thursday, one of their clients came to call him to follow him to where his car broke down on the Kaduna-Lagos road when a trailer crushed him and his motor-cycle. The man on whose car Ishaq just completed repair works, rushed to the aid of the semi-conscious Ishaq and started to call for help.
His screams expectedly attracted the attention of some good Samaritans whom upon arriving the scene, decided not to touch him, went into Mando town, looked for ‘operation yaki’ and informed them of what they saw.
Together, they carried the unconscious Ishaq, traced? his house around 2.30am, before handing his? remains over to his family.
They claimed that they had taken him to some hospitals within Kaduna metropolis, all of which rejected him. And as their vehicle had run out of fuel, the family should take over their son and the search for medical treatment for him.
He was subsequently taken to the St. Gerards Hospital, Kakauri, Kaduna where he was taken in, but there too, he and his family were kept in the waiting room awaiting the breaking of dawn to enable them pay the N30,000 deposit demanded for treatment to commence.
The family was able to raise the amount by mid-day on Friday after which he was placed on life support. Barely two hours later, the semi-conscious Ishaq lapsed into fully unconsciousness and gave up the ghost”.
His brother further said what pained him the most was not the demise of his brother but the attitude and reactions of some key stakeholders.
Let’s look at the case of Ali Sani who after being found in a pool of his own blood, his friends and business colleagues rushed him to three different hospitals but he was rejected in each of them on the excuse of either needing police report or lastly, the deposit of some unwholesomely large sums of money.
The chairman of Bureau de change operators association, Mallam Garba Kano said: “We rushed Ali to the first and nearest hospital but he was rejected and later we took him to Apapa health centre, where he was also rejected, likewise in the third hospital too”.
Mallam Garba who said the victim drifted into a coma because of the much blood he was loosing, lamented that when they finally got a private hospital to accept him, they were demanded to pay N2.5 million as deposit.
He said it took so much time and negotiations before the hospital accepted N750,000 as deposit and to commence treatment. Unfortunately Ali died hours later and the deposit lost.????????????????????????????????????????
Mohammed, the brother of Ishaq explained to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY on why he felt the society and hospitals in particular should be blamed for the deaths of many emergency victims.? “To begin with, the trailer that ran over him did not even stop. We later got to know that trailer drivers do not stop, whatever the reason, and regardless of what they hit or smash on their trips.
During their interactions with one another (trailer drivers), they often ask; ‘kwaro nawa ka taka yau?’ (How many insects did you crush today?) The insect signifies human beings or their vehicles.
Mohammed also blamed the inadequacies of the Joint Task Force (Operation Yaki), the special patrol and anti-crime squad initiated by the Government to protect the lives and property of the citizenry whose taxes the JTF operation is funded with. “The patrol and anti-crime squad is often left with an vehicle without fuel. How can they carry out successful patrols?” He asked.
“It is also unbelievable that the same patrol and anti-crime squad will take an accident victim to government health Institutions, which are also funded with tax payers money only for the same hospitals to refuse to accept emergency victims.
He asked: “What manner of people are we in Nigeria were this attitude of both the private and public health Institutions in Nigeria is not only unfortunate but also evil and cruel?
“Our hospitals have come to create a strong? but negative reputation of refusing to treat even the most basic of cases on emergency, insisting on paymentof deposits first Such demands often cause a deterioration of the patients brought in on emergency or their outright deaths”, he said.
Mohammed alleged: “The Government have refused to provide us with a rail transport system as the better alternative to road transportation for the haulage of bulk and heavy goods including oil, while also refusing to prohibit the movement of heavy duty vehicles on our roads, are some of the pressing problems”, he concluded.
Mohammed called on Nigerians to not only pray hard, but also to be very vigilant while using the roads for the safety of their lives.
Dr. Mohammed Ladan, an Atlanta-based physician who is also VOA Hausa health programme’s presenter, while talking to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, lamented the situations victims of emergency usually find themselves in Nigeria. “What is happening in Nigeria is not obtainable in the civilised world where lives are valued. Emergency cases are treated as the name implies. Not asking for money or police report first. It’s all about saving lives.
The PRO of Nigerian Resident Doctors Association, Dr. Waziri Garba Dahihu said people should blame the system, not doctors, explaining that in many instances doctors have been arrested for treating emergency victims who turned out to be suspected armed robbers.