Miss Ngozi Nwaonu, aged 26, comes from a very poor family background in Imo State. Due to her family background, her aunt (now late) decided to take her in and bear the responsibility for her training and upbringing. Tragedy struck for Ngozi with the death of her benefactor (her aunt) four years ago, leaving her to suffer and fend for herself. Howbeit, young Ngozi has managed to acquire some education up to the National Certificate in Education (NCE) level. Her attaining to this height was through the help of good spirited individuals, as Mr Kingsley Ugochukwu Akwuole narrates to the African Democrat. Mr Akwuole is Ngozi’s cousin whose mother had cared for and provided for Ngozi before her death four years ago. 

In 2012, Ngozi noticed a small lump around her lower limb. Initially, the guess was that it might be Hernia. The possibility of being faced with a huge medical bill tormented her immensely, since she did not have money of her own to take care of the medical situation. Nevertheless, she sought the help of relatives who accepted to pay for her supposed ‘Hernia’ minor surgery at a local hospital in a neighbouring town.  

On getting to the hospital, Ugochukwu Akwuole told the African Democrat, the Doctor who acted as the surgeon simply carried out the surgery without any formal medical analysis to determine what the lump was. Akwuole’s understanding is that the doctor also played into the assumption that it was Hernia. He cut her open, and sutured back, collected the poor girl’s money and sent her away. 

One year after the surgery, the wound refuses to heal, Akwuole laments. Instead of healing, the wound has resulted to cancer, spreading like a wild fire up to her bones. She’s reported back to the hospital, and they are now recommending amputation, without even exhausting other medical possibilities.  

The African Democrat learnt that the report on the girl’s file shows that during the course of the surgery, a lot of her ankle bones, arteries, and tendons were mutilated /damaged.  

To the girl and her family, this is a bizarre case of being a victim of a quack medical practice. This victimization isn’t the fault of the girl who needed surgery. The said hospital and its surgeons are licenced to practice. Therefore, they ought to have known better.  

The unwelcome development of medical pilgrimage abroad seems to pronounce the total collapse of Medicare in Nigeria. It’s become both an elitist thing and a source of pride to hear Nigerians say they go abroad for medical check-ups and treatments. Perhaps, the only curable ailments in Nigeria today are malaria fever and typhoid fever (plus other related illnesses, of course). 

However, it seems that every other sickness is either reduced to malaria-typhoid or the patient might end up as a victim. With the flight of some of Nigeria’s good medical professionals in search of greener pasture abroad, caused by the utter neglect of the health system by the government, Nigerians are left at the mercy of quackery. Thus, if the sick are not privileged to be flown abroad to - India, South Africa, Europe or North America, it would only take the grace of God to survive. Ironically, India is a developing country in the category of Nigeria. Through good medical practice, India nets a huge foreign exchange from Nigerian patients and other Africans alike. 

The African Democrat learnt of the sudden death of a young Nigerian woman in her early 40s a number of weeks ago. She had planned to travel to India for Fibroid surgery. Somehow, one of her acquaintances convinced her to go through the surgery procedure in a Nigerian hospital. She saw the Nigerian option as cost-effective. After paying over N400,000 to the hospital in Nigeria, she never woke up from her surgery bed.

There’s another story of a clinic in Enugu, which says it embarks on tumour operation. In that hospital, patients are extorted of their hard-earned money with promises of health restoration.  The African Democrat learnt that everyone that goes through the operation theatre of that hospital ends up an imbecile. 

The worry is that there seems to be no regulation of the activities of hospitals and medical doctors in Nigeria. It’s most unfortunate that such bad practices are not held against the culprits. Otherwise, it’s high time people got paid damages for any careless medical treatment. That would sanitize the system, and re-assure the people that they don’t have to pay to be killed. Above all, it will be a wake-up call on the government to equip the hospitals, and get the right medical practitioners in place. A functional medical system will discourage the acute medical pilgrimage, pioneered by government officials. 

Finally, what hope is left for poor Ngozi Nwaonu, and thousands of other victims? It does not sound right that she has to lose a leg for something which was minor. The government and all good spirited people must not be silent in this matter.