Traditions, lack of equipment make
modern medical practice difficult in
Nigeria
Marylynn G. Hewitt, SFO of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 19, 2006
Afikpo, Nigeria — Her 18-year-old face is peaceful and her belly still swollen from carrying twins. The doctor covers her body with a sheet too short for her feet. Her family is on their way to pick up her body for burial.
Dr. Christopher Ukanwoko says she didn't have much of a chance. That's the case with many patients brought here to Mater Misericordiae (Mother of Mercy) Hospital. He and the rest of the staff at the hospital run by the Catholic Diocese of Abakali and the Medical Missionaries of Mary hope their work will change this situation in the future.
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Newborns at Mater Misericordiae are kept in plastic tubs covered with tightly-woven netting to help protect them from mosquitoes, which carry malaria. | Like many, the woman gave birth at home using a traditional birth assistant unable to help when complications arose.
The staff has been told that one twin died at birth – but they are not certain. In many bush villages twins are thought of as evil, so one is left alone in the bush. Sometimes they are found and taken in by a family or an orphanage. Sometimes they are not.
This young woman was brought in during the middle of the night, seven days after giving birth and still retaining the placenta. "She'd already lost a lot of blood and she was in shock. She was septic and I could get no blood pressure," he says. Using a generator-powered light, he performed surgery to remove the placenta and says he was not surprised she did not make it.
It's frustrating, he says, because some are still dependent on traditional medical practices such as potions and brews. Getting cases so close to death does not do much to reassure people modern medicine can help. Yet "once we treat, most of them recover and that is what keeps me here."
"I am a Christian," Dr. Ukanwoko says. "Because of this we treat life. Even if they come without money, we treat. When life is lost – it is lost forever."
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A mother holds her sick baby in the pediatric ward at the hospital run by the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki. | Fr. Upai Paulinus Anya is the pastor of the parish on the grounds and administrator of the one-time 300-bed hospital. These days, due to the lack of water and equipment, 126 is the maximum. "We tell God our problems and we are getting signs that He is responsible and help is coming," he says. Some of that is from World Medical Relief African Partners who plan to renovate the children's ward and follow with operating theater equipment before moving on to renovate the rest of the hospital. Among things that will be updated is the way to sterilize equipment. Now, instruments are boiled in a kettle. The gauge is broken on the old sterilizing machine, but it doesn't much matter since there's often no propane to run it.
Most of what remain of the old beds are the metal frames, the foam mattresses long disintegrated.
A crucifix hangs on the wall of each ward and in one section, where two patients are in the throes of death from AIDS, a handmade poster proclaims: "God creates life, nurses maintain it."
Fr. Anya says he is happy to return to the complex after studies abroad. "I had a hunger to come back," he says, adding his devotion to St. Francis of Assisi strengthens him. "My special area is pastoral theology but my specialty is caring for the sick."
"AIDS has made a lot of difference" at Mater Misericordiae, says Theresa Chidinma Akpelu, deputy director of nursing service. "We teach them and counsel them," she says of those with HIV/AIDS, but they are not able to follow up since many leave for bush villages after being diagnosed. "Jesus gives me the strength because it's very tedious work in there. I was born a Catholic and will die a Catholic." The hardest part is having patients "cry and cry for you to help them" and not have basic medicine or equipment to help.
Despite the difficulties, Fr. Anya says, "It's not hard to stay joyful. It's only hard to meet the greatest needs."
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