It was on a faithful evening trying to chill after the stressful day, with my fiancée over the phone, chatting and trying to lay off steams; suddenly, and out of the blue, my fiancée received a distress call from her mum, and her few words were:
Please, take care of your siblings for me!
And she hung up immediately, out of shock and distress, she (my fiancée) called back only to have the phone answered by a man who told her that her mum was involved in a ghastly road traffic accident, by 11:00pm, in an area of political unrest where travellers fear to take at such hours of the day.
The implication of the time and location was that: They were hard to find.
In my lovely country where accessing emergency medical services seems like digging for precious stones, I still without hesitation attempted to savage the situation.
I called all the local police hotline in two states closer to the location, however, the police needed precise location which was not available as the accident victims had a tough time triangulating their exact location. However, they promised to relentlessly search for them; I also called a private Emergency Medical Service (EMS) company, who told me their services didn't cover the area where the accident occured. Meanwhile, my "would-be" mother-in-law continues to bleed profusely from both injured legs without any first aid care or paramedical support. The drivers involved in this car accident were clueless not knowing the best line of action.
What do I do? For I was already weak and drowsy after long hours of calls into the night; can't travel at that time as there was no transportation nor a precise location.
After bleeding for about 4 hours, by 3am, help finally arrived and all the injured were conveyed to close hospitals. However, she was the most injured, even other victims of the accident were worried about her!
The New Issue
I was happy support came, only to be confronted by a new situation, four different hospitals visited refused to admit her as they fear her injury is just too bad for them to handle (here in Nigeria, most health facilities do not like handling potentially fatal cases as it brings about public stigma if someone dies in their facility); this increased the bleeding time to 5 hours before the 5th hospital accepted to take care of her. It was a pleasant relief!
At about 4am or thereabout, she's now being cared for, and the immediately it was the dawn of the new day, I and my fiancee and one of her siblings headed for the hospital, a journey of about 4-5 hours.
On arrival, behold our mum lying helplessly on a bed in the emergency department, she looks okay, but her legs were heavily bandaged; her children (my fiancée and her siblings) couldn't hold back their tears; and seeing how heartbroken they were, the next word from her was: Chukwudi (my name), come and hold my hands!
Without a word, I consented.
It was a heart-throbbing moment, but I just had to be optimistic and hopeful as well as stay comforting so that the atmosphere will be maintained to a reasonable degree.
A lot of persons called and even travelled down that morning to see how she was doing, it was a huge display of love and affection. Though, the love and affection did not translate into the best possible care!
But, later that day, she must leave the 5th hospital, to the 6th and eventually to the 7th.
It has been a long writing, in the next article, part two of this series, I will share other parts of this story! I don't want it to be a long read.
Thanks for your time! We'll meet in Part II of The Amputation.