CLINIC CONSULTATION

I know life is short, I see it every day the brevity of life, the sadness that follows the departure of a loved one. I hear stories that bring tears to my eyes, my job is one that entails me listening to the most heart stirring stories. The blind ignored by his local government, the retired teacher in his 80’s whose retirement stipends have not been paid for months. The widow and the widower, the orphan left without any hope for tomorrow. I see the young breath their last the rich and poor lay side by side gasping for their last breath, it’s all a mixed feeling.

Bombarded by sad stories sometimes joyful ones daily, makes me ask myself questions. Questions bothering on health care delivery in my country, who is to blame for the rot in the system, the inefficient system in place. The internal wrangling among the healthcare workers as left a lot of patients dead, the strikes, counter-strikes and more strikes which seem to have no end in sight will cripple and worsen the already sorry state of the health care delivery.

The retired teacher who was around during the Biafra war, who saw the Biafra soldier march peacefully through his village somewhere near Agbor and all they did was to wave at them, the soldier who fought in Nigerian army who asked me, “how can I tell the government I killed anyone? I fought against the enemy and if I am lucky enough and I sight the enemy first, the enemy meets his creator and if the enemy sights me…”

The blind orphan who lost the sight during his final year exams, suddenly the hall went dark and that was the beginning of his travail, he lost his parents one after the other, he has fought never to be a beggar, learnt new skills to put food on his table, learnt to live alone acquired new certificates but he still can’t make ends meet.

The family who were all diagnosed HIV positive, how? What happened? The man who lost a limb, the child who lost one eye.

Daily my clinic consultation is a mixed bag of sorts, patients who went to look for solutions to their medical problem but are back since the problem remains. Your hear stories of them being in churches, traditional medical practitioners places, and various other alternative therapies they were introduced to by friends and families, some come back worse others just there…

I am pained because we have forgotten about each other, our government has been irresponsible at best; whatever tier of the government you want to think of (IMHO).  We die one day at a time because we refuse to lend that helping hand while our family and friends are the victim of a disaster than can be abated.