The St. Nicholas Hospital example

On Tuesday, February 24, The Punch newspaper published an interesting story (http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/exam-fee-turned-me-into-conductor-%E2%94%80-accident-victim/).

It got my attention because of several reasons. First was the refreshing action of a highbrow hospital in Lagos, St. Nicholas, which not only treated an accident victim for free, its management and staff further gave him a cash gift to pay for his examinations and take care of his welfare. The victim, 17-year old Owolabi Oladunjoye, had been injured in an auto accident in January and was one of the two people taken to St. Nicholas hospital, which treated both for free.

Now if you’re reading this outside Nigeria, it may take you a while to understand why this is a big issue. Hospital treating patients for free is the exception and not the rule in our own country.

The second reason why the story is important to me is that Oladunjoye is from my home state, Osun. I will return to this later, but necessary to add that in the midst of the APC-PDP war of propaganda towards the March 28 election, we appear unconcerned about the show of shame ongoing in many states of the federation. Life is slowly grinding to a halt under our governors.

I’m not sure there is one Nigerian except members of the ruling class who has not had the experience of a relative being rejected at hospitals, both private and public, because of one reason or the other. These range from money, lack of bed space, strike, lack of police report, or shortage of facilities. The other day, a senior colleague narrated how a journalist died aftermath of an explosion from a power generating set in his house. He was first rushed to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he was rejected before family members took him to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi where he was refused admission also. The reason cited by the hospital was that they just fumigated the premises and so no bed space for the late journalist. How do you fumigate a hospital that left no room for emergency cases? At the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), the family was asked to pay N250, 000 before he could be admitted.

It took pleas and some phone calls in the dead hours of the night before LUTH accepted N50, 000 despite the fact that he was identified as a journalist with verifiable means of employment and a promise by the family that they would source the remaining amount the next day and pay. Sadly, and typically too in many of such cases, he died. Another painful reminder of how cheap life is in this part of the world. Some years back, a health minister from Zimbabwe said at a global health forum that that death is optional in America while there are alternatives to it in Europe but inevitable in Africa; cases like the death of this journalist affirmed such statements.

That is why we must applaud the management of St. Nicholas for taking care of these two accident victims free. The hospital not only treated them, it ensured a reunion with their families and while Oladunjoye’s own could not be traced in Lagos, even after St. Nicholas sent a staffer to make enquiries at Oshodi, it did not give up on him. Finally, a relative was identified and Oladunjoye’s mother came from Ede in Osun State to take the boy home. With the death of his father, the 17-year old ran to Lagos in order to raise N4, 000 for his examination: “I lost my father in 1994 and things became hard for my family. I struggled and worked to feed myself.

“When I was to take my final school exams, I felt I should come down to Lagos to work and raise money for my exam. I needed N4, 000 for the exam so I ran from home without telling my mother where I was going.”

This column had in the past complained about a controversial project of Osun State government under Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, schools reclassification, and part of the claim of the government is that it pays the examination fee of the students. I’m not sure the Aregbesola government has said anything about Oladunjoye or maybe I missed it, but it is shameful that a 17-year-old nearly lost his life trying to raise his examination fee. By the way, the shame is not only that of my home state government, but also of a society that kills its best through neglect and abdication of responsibilities.

To the management of St. Nicholas Hospital, thank you again for showing that not all of us have lost our humanity and that some hospitals are still in the business of saving lives.