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.

WAS PRINCE AWARE HE WAS TAKING FENTANYL, THE BIGGEST PAINKILLER?

And so here I was, reading a post online CNN and then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe Prince would be alive today if silly mistakes such as mislabeling of drugs were avoided. What a tragedy!

On a second thought, on reading further the reports from the CNN which revealed that a trusted source with knowledge of investigation on Prince’s death gave information to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the pills which were seized from inside Prince's Paisley Park compound by investigators were as a matter of fact labeled as hydrocodone meanwhile they contained fentanyl which was the drug that reportedly led to the death of the singer, I had a nagging question in my head.

The question that went through my head was “did Prince know about this labeling or was there some sort of foul play”?

 

I didn’t need to read any further as there were speculations that what could have caused Prince’s overdose was “either a pharmaceutical manufacturer mislabeled the pills, or the pills were illegally manufactured and obtained illegally”.

Even though I like the idea of the investigators who have decided to work with the theory that the late Prince may not have known the pills contained fentanyl, I am still wondering why a lot of these celebrities dwell on painkillers. Was Prince also in some sort of pain like we heard about MJ the late “wacko Jacko”? What’s with celebrities and pains anyway?

So far, investigators have not established whether Prince consumed those pills or whether he was aware the pills contained fentanyl and still went ahead to ingest them even though many of us have the opinion that Prince loved life, to a large extent or so we thought.  I don’t think he would have taken that overdose if he knew they were not just hydrocodone -for whatever pains- but also contained fentanyl that became the death of him on the 21^st of April, 2016 as the said fentanyl is reported to be about a hundred times stronger than the popularly abused morphine and up to fifty times the potency of heroin

In our country today, we’ve heard stories of people dying as a result of initial wrong diagnosis as well as wrong medicine prescription/administration by supposed medical professionals. From this report, it means such mistakes are not just peculiar to our country hence the need for a wake-up call for doctors and other medical professionals around the world.

So the question is, “what is the way out of this”?

In as much as many loved Prince to a fault, let’s take an objective look at the issue and some common mistakes as well as other angles to the story as suggested by the report:

If the manufacturer mislabeled the pills, there would have likely been a recall, as fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid medication and a controlled substance. It would be a serious health hazard if a batch was mislabeled and given to the public.

Star Tribune sources said Prince's toxicology report, which has not been released, also revealed the presence of lidocaine, alprazolam and Percocet in his system.

CNN's Dr. Drew Pinsky said the combination of fentanyl, (which is an opioid based drug), and alprazolam (which is a benzodiazepine) could be the key to why Prince died.

"It is all too common for people to overdose if they are taking a combination of a benzodiazepine and an opioid," Pinsky said. "This is what I've been warning was a likely possibility."

At the beginning of the investigation into Prince's death, sources told CNN that painkillers were found inside his Paisley Park compound and they could not find a valid prescription for the medication. The Star Tribune now reports that their source said no prescription for fentanyl has been found in the months since Prince's death. So, a burning question remains. How did Prince acquire the drug?

Fentanyl, the most powerful painkiller on the market, is normally prescribed to cancer patients in extreme pain. It's also used to ease the pain of someone who is dying or as part of anesthesia during surgery.

But illegally manufactured fentanyl pills are readily available across America.

Just last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration published a report saying counterfeit pills are fueling the fentanyl and heroin/opioid crisis in the United States, which has become an epidemic. The DEA issued a national health alert over the rise in fentanyl overdoses in 2015.

That year, the DEA said its National Forensic Laboratory Information System showed "there were approximately eight times as many fentanyl exhibits (confiscated drugs that tested positive for fentanyl) in 2015 as there were during the 2006 fentanyl crisis, clearly demonstrating the unprecedented threat and expansion of the fentanyl market."

Prince's death at 57 years old shocked the world. For months fans mourned the musical genius by showing up by the hundreds to pay their respects. Many left purple mementos on the fence that surrounds the Paisley Park Compound where Prince died.

He was discovered dead inside of an elevator in the complex.

Officials never revealed the amount of fentanyl that was in Prince's system. But the Star Tribune reported that a source said the amount of fentanyl in his system was so high it would have killed anyone, no matter their size.

It has been four months since Prince died and the investigation into his death is still ongoing. The DEA began working the case alongside the Carver County Sheriff's Office from the very early stages. But no one knows exactly why Prince was taking strong painkillers or how he obtained them.

Hmm! Now you have it.

After reading up, I guess you still have that nagging question of “what’s with celebrities and pain(killers)?

Lastly, medical professionals around the world should really wake up and sit up because these drugs don’t just grow legs and walk into the hands of people who use them. They are still given by persons legally and illegally so such persons need to have a rethink given the number of damages reported so far.

Hey Guys! Check The Butt Before You Get The Boot!!

A doctor was recently convicted and sent to Prison somewhere in the United States because some butt and breast implantation which he carried out on some female patient or should I say client went terribly wrong.

I hate to put up horrible pictures on my page but then I sincerely crave your indulgence this one time that you grant me the opportunity to share these pictures as seen here below on the right in order to drive home my points on this particular outing.

I have always held the opinion that there is no moral justification for any woman or even men to have any surgical augmentation on their looks especially if it has nothing to do with health or some corrective body issues. Any surgeries other than the aforementioned type of surgeries which would be non-other than cosmetic, in order to look like the next person who obviously was created to look exactly the way they look is sheer madness. I just don’t get it!

Apart from corrective reasons, I honestly think it’s a no, no, for any sane person to go under the doctors’ knives all in a bid to look ‘JUST PERFECT’.

Sometime ago, I had a huge laugh with a couple of relatives as we all sat out in their house while we listened to a close friend of the family as he narrated his experience and ordeal on the day he had a meeting with a lady he met on badoo, one of the trending social media platforms.

According to him, he had been chatting with the said lady back and forth for a while until they both eventually agreed to meet at a certain hotel on a date. The ‘D’ day came and they both had lunch or was it late lunch? Can’t remember vividly but sure they had a meal together. Anyway, that’s not the focus of the write-up. The bottom-line is ‘there was a meal’. *laughs*

This family friend who’s known for sowing very ‘wild oats’ is a married man whose wife has on many occasions had serious fights with him over his randy and wayward lifestyle to no avail. His standard of living which includes womanizing, smoking as well as excessive drinking in a way that even some other men who indulge in such vices would be shocked and even regard themselves as ‘saints’ when compared with the level at which this particular guy operates. To say the least, his excesses were really excessive!

Enough digression and back to the day of the ‘badoo meeting’ *winks* between these duo.

After the meal, they both checked into a room and it didn’t take long before an argument ensued as soon as the man felt the lady’s butt only to realize that her very ‘perfect’ looking butt was outrightly FAKE! It was at this point that my relatives and I burst into bouts of laughter and chorused “good for you”.

Ignoring our outbursts, he continued and said he was so infuriated as soon as he  realized that the butt was fake and thus immediately asked the girl to leave claiming that she had deceived him with fake pictures on ‘badoo’ and since he’s found out it was not the ‘real thing’ she should get out of the room.

On the other hand however, the ‘badoo’ lady wouldn’t hear any of that and insisted to be paid before leaving with the stance that he had wasted her day having spent the time she would have used to look out for a better ‘client’, hence he would have to pay for ‘goods delivered’.

The man said she was crazy, that the ‘goods delivered’ were not used and besides they ‘didn’t meet up with expectations’ and then added that the meal the lady had was enough payment for her stress of meeting with him at all.

Phew! The rest is history even though at the end of the day after much trouble, he still did not give the lady a dime as she left raining curses on him to the amazement of other hotel customers and staffs. I still laugh every time I remember that incidence. That he was disconcerted after the whole scenario would have been a miracle. He was very much unperturbed. I guess this gives you a clear picture of how barefaced this fellow is as a person. End of story.

A couple of years ago, while on marketing rounds as a banker, my colleagues and I got into a discussion after we overhead the news on the radio about a young Nigerian girl who left the UK where she was sent to study and travelled to the states to have a butt enhancement surgery but unfortunately died in the process due to complications. It was reported that when the parents heard the news of her death, they were so broken and wondered who or what could have encouraged their daughter to go carry out such a surgery.

We have heard of so many cases of butt, breasts surgical enhancements, liposuction amongst many other cosmetic surgeries that have either gone wrong mildly or ended up in fatalities. But then again, that has still not dissuaded people in their tens-of-thousands all over the world from engaging in such procedures.

Sometimes I feel it has to do with having excess money and not knowing how to properly utilize the funds or maybe it is due to very LOW self-esteem forgetting that silicones can never be as good as the ‘real thing’.

We can’t all have the same sizes and shapes. That would be boring, wouldn’t it? God knows why he created us differently, after all not everyone likes watermelon. Some people would opt for bananas, oranges, apple, even tiger nuts when offered the fruits. So why do we need to go through all the hassles trying to look like ‘apples’ when not everyone likes apple. Hmmm! It’s crazy!!

About a month or two ago, I read in an interview where a popular Nollywood hunk said one of the things that put him off is a lady wearing fake butts or boobs. I laughed and then asked no one in particular ‘then why do we (ladies) try so hard to impress with those since the guys you try to impress will eventually find out at the end of the day anyway?

Babes! From artificial hair to fake eyelashes, boobs and butt pads which are understandably accepted by majority all over the world today, we have become more and more artificial as the years roll by especially with more scientific discoveries by professionals who keep coming up with ways on how we can part with our hard earned cash for procedures which we, of a truth do not really need.

In all of these though, having to wear them and take off on a daily basis is a lot better than going under the knife to have some silly silicone put in you with complications later. 

On a lighter note, if you do not have any good ideas on how to spend your money, trust me, I know a million good ways on how you can utilize such funds and I bet, you will be glad you did.

    

Please ladies! Save yourselves all that ‘troubles incurring’ procedures.

For me, silicones sound really ‘silly’! My thoughts though.

THE NIGERIAN HEALTH SECTOR: A SHAME WORSE THAN DEATH

There is a proverb that says ‘shame is worse than death’ I guess that’s the level we are at several sectors in Nigeria at the moment. There’s no point going into details about the various sectors as my focus is on health today.

I and millions of other people living within and outside the shores of this country  have always said that the Nigerian health sector needs serious overhauling. Like a friend said the other day “we need to start from the very beginning”. The beginning in the sense that we need to go back to exactly how the colonial authorities taught us modern medicine.

Remember the days of dispensaries?

I don’t get it. Lives are being lost in thousands on a daily basis. I am not talking about the lives being lost through attacks from book haram, Fulani herdsmen et al. Rather; I am talking about the lives being lost as a result of the level of decay the health sector is encountering at the moment.

A couple of days back, a few doctors who were on their way to Abuja for a conference lost their lives not just because they had a fatal accident but mainly because they were not be properly attended to at the hospital they were rushed after the accident happened with flimsy excuses until some of the people who had survived the accident eventually died. The hospital lacked any of the facilities needed for their lives to be saved. Phew! Those were silly avoidable deaths.

Yesterday, I was going through facebook and I saw a picture of a young lady I knew while growing up back in the days, as a friend of mine wrote a beautiful message about her and eventually ended it with “REST IN PEACE”. When I saw that part of the message, my heart fell.

I became most outraged when I eventually heard how she died. So painfully shameful for our doctors and the health sector entirely. The said lady was ill and she was told it was ‘fibroid’ and was being treated for it until several months later another set of doctors diagnosed cancer of the colon.

Haaa! Please is there any doctor in the house? So all the while the poor lady was going about getting treatment for fibroid, she was unknowingly dying from cancer as the thing was gradually spreading. Wrong diagnosis again just as Gani Fawehinmi was wrongly diagnosed as well as the late beautiful gap-toothed NAFDAC boss, Mrs Dora Akunyili. What a pain!

It is only in this country a doctor will tell you one strange thing just for him to recommend surgery and collect money only for you to discover later that the surgery was not actually needed as nothing was wrong with you. How greedy and wicked can man be?

When abroad and I miss a GP appointment, it is the hospital that will be pursuing me with calls that I was due for a hospital appointment and would like to know why I didn’t make it. Back home in naija! For where? Who will call you not to talk about why you didn’t make it. It’s just how rotten the system is.

Oh hold on a minute. I recall that they do actually call, especially the private hospitals and such calls on nearly every occasion is to remind you of outstanding bills/card renewal. At the end of the day, it is not about your health but your pocket. What a big shame!

How many people can afford going abroad for medicals? Many people can barely eat not to talk about buying drugs worth one thousand naira. So what are we talking about here?

Is there ever going to be a solution or way out of this nightmare called ‘THE NIGERIAN HEALTH SECTOR’?

We sure do really HELP out of this shame that is worse than death!