Listen, Listen, pay full attention. ‘Betta dey for 9ja o!’

In the doldrums of the rainy season, we all made plans for the winding down of the long vacation (as we term the summer holiday in Nigeria.) One could have never predicted how the holiday would draw to an end.

Inexplicably due to storming headaches and plethora of other issues, I spent close to a week in our University clinic running myriad of tests that showed me being in perfect health. At that juncture, sitting perplexed across an equally befuddle medical practioner who was also a Lecturer at our medical school at Unilag. After much consideration as we discussed my symptoms, she wrote a referral letter to LUTH for futher tests as we decided that this was the best course of action moving forward.

To LUTH, I went. LUTH is a behemoth unto itself as you have all heard. We got lost a couple of times we eventually got to where we were supposed to be. We were early, minutes past 7, yet we met a lot of people there already.

After all of the tests that were run there, two wonderful women whom I shall leave anonymous for the purposes of this article, saw the need for extreme measures due to my condition and recommended that we quickly go to UCH, Ibadan (the Teaching Hospital there) as there are more specialists in the area of my situation and a lot more equipment.

At first there was a sense of incredulity; was this a joke or what? Yet there was a sense of urgency with the tone that they used especially as they depicted my condition with models. So unto UCH, Ibadan we went.

If LUTH was a behemoth, UCH was gargantuan! It encompassed several campuses and was actually a lot easier to navigate . upon learning about it’s illustrious history, it made sense why it was laid out as it was. Like LUTH, we got there early but where equally shocked at the number of people already waiting. To be honest, I had heard so many negative reports of Nigerian hospitals and was filled with a lot of trepidation about undergoing any procedure in any of them.

When I went through the registration process, I was pleasantly surprised at how it had been streamlined as well as computerized. Of course, there were still hiccups. A lot of the stress was the Nigerian factor which was evident as we saw people who had been punctual about their appointments being bypassed by others who went straight to meet their Doctor friends or took their referrals from people they knew in the UCH system.

As was stated at LUTH, UCH’s Ophthalmology section was a lot bigger, there were more machines and a lot more specialists. People came from all of the country to seek help. As I interacted with people from all spheres of life during my duration there, I learned a lot about the psyche of our nation, Nigeria.

Getting back on track, I ended up being there for a period of time that was unprecendented by me. during that time, I learned to appreciate our unsung heroes and heroines. This ode is dedicated to them.

Let’s start with the Nurses who we all know are grossly underpaid for the grunt work they do yet are absolutely essential to the smooth running of any hospital, not to talk of one as big as UCH! They are the vital part of the machine that is UCH, they are always there for their shifts and are dedicated to their jobs. I became good friends with one nurse in particular who worked the graveyard shift, Nurse Maye. She is awesome! A kind soul who has absolute dedication for her job. Every night, she goes to each bedside, administers medications to her patiently nicely and soothes them with words of comforts. Early in the morning, she wakes them up and goes through her routine of checking the vitals of the patients. She is one of the many dedicated and nurturing nurses on call at UCH. They make being there a lot more bearable.

The Cleaners are also not acknowledged, when we were woken up every day by the nurses by 4-4:30 am, they ensured that we had steaming hot water for our bath, did their best in an abysmal situation- dwindling resources et al in recessive economy.

Now unto the Doctors, I am forever grateful to them. I am going to name a few here; starting from the worthy Head of Department- Dr Ogundipe, whose unerring dedication is an example to all. The Specialist and consultant Dr Oluleye whose focus and meticulous drive to serving others was a major inspiration (and motivation) to me. Everytime I spoke to him; during my operation and when I had follow up visits, I was filled with awe that he could have relocated like a lot of his peers for greener pastures thereby depriving us of his expertise, yet he has remained here with us. In fact he trains others and is magnimous about sharing his knowledge with others.

I am also very grateful to Dr Idiam who was very patient, gentle and encouraging throughout my stay. Without his excellent rapport and attitude, the trepidation I felt would have overwhelmed me and created an avalanche of being unable to handle the entire saga plus recover. I am in his debt forever and was encouraged by his service towards all of his patients. Dr Olajunji also reminded me that there is hope amongst our younger generation; that not everyone has lost the desire for academia in total- which in turn is beneficial for society as a whole because without teachers to instruct upcoming medical professionals, our healthcare system will grind to a halt. Imagining the calamity that would befall this nation should that occur is too frightening!

There is a lot wrong with our nation and in this case; our healthcare system. I witnessed a lot of it when I was there and it broke my heart over & over. The young father who couldn’t buy medicine for his son and weeping; desolate at his inability to ensure his son’s well being ( my mother gave him the money.) The single mother whose daughter was slated to go in for ophthalmology surgery but was unable to come up with the money and had to keep deferring an operation that is critical for her daughter’s vision. Or do we talk about the scores of people on the waiting list at the hospital? Our teaching hospitals are grossly underfunded, understaffed and have overworked people serving there. I choose to celebrate their effort and hope that as we encourage them, this leads to better morale for them as well as accountability to our leaders to really take stock of our health care system. It affects all of us!