HEALTH: A HUGE SHAME! WILL OUR CHILDREN AND UNBORN GENERATIONS FORGIVE US?

It’s so shameful to say the least that our country is really grinding to a HALT given the way things are going. I bet you, it will take only a miracle to get us out of this mess we are in at the moment.

And hey wait! Before you start casting blames on Jonathan, Yar’adua, Obasanjo and other past administration, I would like you to take a deep breath or better still a huge chill pill because we are all to blame for this situation we have found ourselves.

Now tell me, is it the government that will tell the management in a hospital to bring out already bought equipments to treat patients or is it the government that will go and take inventory CORRECTLY, or fix faulty machines and even buy diesel for generating sets?

I could go on and on and we would still not get to the end even if we spent the whole day.

The truth is, we have all failed firstly, as citizens of this country, secondly, as a people created by God and thirdly, as terrible trailblazers for generations yet unborn.

I just read in the vanguard that thousands of cancer patients are currently facing death nationwide, following a breakdown of all the radiotherapy machines at treatment centres in the country; a development which is no longer news to us as it has become a recurrent issue in our country for years. Sadly it has passed  manageable in the last few weeks as  thousands of patients and their relatives have raised fears and concerns having been turned back from some of the cancer centres as the machines are said to have developed problems due to lack of maintenance and overuse, as a result machines at the National Hospital Abuja, NHA, Lagos University Teaching Hospitals, LUTH, University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, including others in health institutions in Gombe, Enugu, Benin, Sokoto among others are allegedly having the same stories.

That is quite scary because it is a sure death penalty dangling over the heads of these patients if all the machines at the different centres are all truly faulty as reported. So what would the patients do? Especially those who do not have the wherewithal to go abroad.

Now the question any one would ask is “why do we always wait for everything to get bad at the same time before we start running about”? We have always run a bad maintenance culture in everything we use. It has become a part of us. When it comes to maintenance, 1-10 rating is zero as instead of running before-breadown, RBB, we run till-breakdown, RTB.

Reports had it that  the affected hospitals and their managements have adduced the lack of money to buy forex in order to bring in foreign experts to fix the machines hence all those who have oncology problems today in the country, may have to wait for a long time for their treatment to continue.

On the other hand and more heartbreaking according to an oncology expert is that, it was better for an oncology patient not to get radiation treatment than to get half dose or incomplete dosage. He was quoted to have said: “If somebody is getting a radiation treatment and breaks, the cells will now build immunity and bounce back.”

Another worrisome development in the report is that at the NHA, the new Lineal Accelerator Machine procured in 2014 is still intact in the crate and there are fears that they may have gone bad under the condition they are kept. So what are we talking about here?

They say patients need machines for treatment and they are talking about machines which ought to be used for treatment still in crates. Since 2014!

Do we need the government to help management think outside the box? They are busy turning back patients fro hospitals and screaming ‘foreign exchange’, light upsurge, machines are old, and more yet a machine is laying unused or getting bad as mentioned, in some crates. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s not only in NHA that “new machines are still in crates”. This is what I call heartless. May God really help us in this country.

I take some bit of solace in the words of Professor Francis Abayomi Durosimi Etti the Chairman, National Programme on Cancer Management, who confirmed the situation and also added authoritatively that government is doing a lot to get things done as regards the health facility.

Hmmm! We heard all of that and even more in the past. All we are saying is, enough of the ‘talk’, is time to ‘walk the talk’ and this walk will only make sense if we all do our parts in our different circles and up to the government.

You, who is a nurse, doctor, cleaner and worker in the –private and public- hospitals, do you play your part well to enable things move smoothly and keep facilities in working conditions?

Doctors, HOD, Dean, matron et al. what are you doing right or wrong?

Our leaders in Government, including the President, Vice President, Senate, Ministers, et al. What are you doing right or wrong?

And for the rest of us in our little corners. What are you doing right or wrong?

I guess the ball is in all OUR HANDS!

We all need to improve on our maintenance culture when it comes to public and private facilities, eschew foul plays, bitterness,thereby making things work in our country and even our children as well as the unborn generation will bless our souls.

Dieziani And Her Present State

I feel terribly sad, really sad. I feel this way first, as a Nigerian and secondly as a  dynamic  human being who's got a heart, not just a heart but a good one at that.

Why did I start off this way? You may likely want to ask.

The recent pictures of Dieziani Alison-Madueke which has gone viral on social media is a pointer to the saying that "nothing really lasts forever"  (and I'll add) except God Almighty.

One would never believe that those pictures (as seen below on the right) belong to the same Diezieani who was always looking impeccably beautiful while in office.

I still find it hard to believe and if she's really as the pictures tell and not Photoshopped then it's true what they say about cancer being a real DREADED/DREADFUL disease. It is at this point that I say SAD!

I say TERRIBLE because after reading so many comments of Nigerians on this issue on social media, I was alarmed at some of the derogatory and cold-hearted  thoughts from many individuals and was even more alarmed when the few who prayed for Diezieani's healing were severely insulted by those angry number of Nigerians who have obviously drawn battle lines with Dieziani (and her supporters) for her alleged involvement in corruption and siphoning of funds while in office.

And hey, just so you know, I am NOT one of her supporters neither will I castigate her until she's proven guilty by the Court with well documented evidences that she's indeed guilty of the charges levelled against her.

Like one of the commentators said "I pray that she gets well so that she can come and face the corruption charges". I presume without any doubts that Diezieani would really like that instead of the state she's found herself at the moment.

But wait a minute, like one of the comments read "how come she was never sick while in office until now?" That gives you food for thought isn't it?

Now check this out! I read sometime ago that worry is one of the causes of cancer and also can very well corrupt the healthy immune system cells in the body while facilitating the spread of the cancer. 

This I presume to a large extent answers the above question. I deduce while Dieziani was happy in office and thus was able to manage any form of stress properly, she was on the other hand able to suppress and control the cancer which I suspect (based on her present looks in the pictures) must have being diagnosed long before now.

Now tell me, why wouldn't she have suppressed it all the while? Who wouldn't be happy at all times given the positions she's held these past years? She was made Nigeria's minister of transportation in 2007 after being the first female Director of Shell Petroleum Company in Nigeria and also became the first female President of OPEC in 2014. Hmmm! Diezzy baby!! I guess she earned all of it though. 

That tells you that happiness is truly a medicine just as the bible says "a merry heart doeth good more than medicine". There are days when you are so happy doing things that you only realise late into the evening that you forgot to eat any food all the while.

The fear of being probed after former President Goodluck Jonathan left office may have shot up uncontrollable  stress hormones in Dieziani which very well made the cancer cells more radical leading to the state she's in at the moment coupled with the effects of chemotherapy which she must have undergone a couple of times now.

Need I say more, I just wish her to get well and overcome all that she's going through presently. In as much as I detest corruption and all those involved, I don't wish her dead even as she's come out to say she never 'stole any money'.

And so (if you are really sick), get well soon Dieziani!