Hello steemians today I want to tell a story, this story exemplifies our attitude towards life which needs to change. There are always nice things said about people when they die. People gather and say wonderful things about them and I always wonder if they were told all those wonderful things before they died.
During my internal medicine posting I came across a sad situation. There was a recently admitted man in the male ward. He could barely afford the drug prescriptions he was told to get. Only one person was constantly by his side, it was his son. The patient was diabetic and HIV positive. In Nigeria when you’re poor, the nurses treat you poorly , the doctors are aggressive and hospital workers in general look down on you.
One morning I got into the ward one hour before ward rounds and I noticed he was in shock (hyperglycemic shock), he needed insulin. His son said there seas no money for it. I and the house officer begged anothe patient for his insulin and asked him to buy the syringe ( these things are meant to be available in the hospital but we are running a failed system here) he told us again that he didn’t have money. I spoke with him for a few minutes and got to know he was broke and his relatives were reluctant to help . I and the house officer gave him a little money and then sent him on his way to get the syringe which he got. The insulin was administered and his condition started to improve. I left the male ward for the female medical ward because I heard my consultant was there. After one hour I came back to the male ward and walked straight to his bed to see how he was doing, lo and behold, his body was in a bag (still on the bed ) his wife whom I had never seen was crying and in a couple of minutes, there were eleven people around this bed!!! I hope you read that right !! ELEVEN !!!!!!!!. These people were never around then they were looking 500 naira syringe. That less than 1SBD. But now the place was crawling with relatives. I’m sure he was going to have a huge burial, one tenth of that money would have saved his life .
We have to do better as humans let’s look after our own. Eulogies,nice words, big funerals are all trivial and pointless when someone is dead. Say nice things to your friends while they’re still here, give , laugh and love. We only have one life to live.