EPISODE 5
‘So, really, whose patient is she?’
Doctor Afuarida asked with impatience written all over his face
Bola
indicated, her body language reeking of timidity, ‘Sir, she was supposed to be my patient, but I haven’t been able to
clerk her’
‘Oh, really? She was supposed to
be?’
‘Do you even have any other patient
on the ward?’
‘Ehm…no sir. But my other patient
has just been discharged’
‘Please, leave my ward round. You
are obviously unprepared to truly learn the art of medicine.’
She
knew better than to plead and therefore, walked out with the little dignity she
still had left.
He
continued lecturing the rest of the students
‘You know, whatever you do now will
speak later in life and especially in your medical career. If you want to be a
good doctor, it definitely begins from now- taking responsibility’
Dr.Amao,
please give me a summary on this patient
’22 year old female, had
appendectomy done. 1st day post-op. Mild pain at op-site. Currently
on IV Metronidazole and Augmentin’
‘Ok’
‘So, who among you can talk about
Alvorado’s scoring system for acute appendicitis?
Silence.
‘So
nobody can voice out abi?’ He thundered
Toochukwu’s
voice reverberated from the back, almost as intimidating as his height.
‘The Alvorado’s scoring system helps
to predict the likelihood of a patient having appendicitis’
And
then he went on to reel out the components.
All
hearts rested. He had saved the day.
Or
so they had thought.
‘So what are the 2 most important
components?’
‘Tenderness and rebound tenderness’
Toochukwu replied, gallantly
‘No! You got it wrong!’
Dr. Afuarida said, almost triumphantly.
‘Anyone else?’
‘Tenderness and migratory abdominal
pain.’ Someone else said
‘No! why are you guys acting like
you didn’t even attend a secondary school? This stuff is basic; its…common
sense’
‘The correct answer is tenderness
and leukocytosis’
‘Ok, you…’
He pointed to another student
‘Examine that abdomen’
Visibly
shaking, she came forward and before even starting had failed.
‘Oh, goodness! Don’t you practice
on one another in your hostels?’ He asked disdainfully
By
now, Linda was fuming. She had felt like slapping that girl that was touching
her abdomen so annoyingly.
So,
because she was on a hospital bed, she had become mannequin abi?
‘But
all these senior students sef. So common abdominal examination, one of them was
still fumbling? She shook her head.
And
as much as she was pissed off, she sincerely couldn’t deny the fact that they
had provided her serious comic relief.
Something
to gist Felix and Tolu about when they came by later.
Now,
to serious matters.
Pathology
end of posting exam was 4 weeks away.
‘Ehn! Linda, you cannot afford to
fail o! This one wey your papa don dey call you doctor…’
She soliloquized.
Her
books were by her side. ‘Them no born you
well to sleep tonight o!’ She said to herself once again.
Dr.
Amao passed by to the next patient to get a blood sample.
‘How are you dear?’
‘Hope ward round wasn’t too
stressful for you, with all the drama?’
She
smiled. ‘It’s been relatively
interesting, actually’
‘Well done! I overheard the
consultant shouting at you not long ago.’
He
laughed and brushed it off ‘That’s normal
around here’
‘I know right’
****************************************************************
Fola
didn’t have breakfast this morning.
No,
he wasn’t fasting. Actually, even if he wanted to eat, he couldn’t have.
By
4am, after getting only minutes of sleep, his phone had rang and as if in a
contextual relationship with Bunmi as regards torturing him, he’d been paged to
handle some patients in the paediatric ward.
He
basically sleep-walked into the ward.
Setting
those paediatric IV lines was basically hell- or more, if there was anything
greater than hell.
And at night! Fola groaned. Who cares? 4am was
still night in his dictionary.
‘Doctor, that line has tissued
again o’
‘And the patient on bed 4 had
another seizure’
‘And…’
Fola
cut the nurse short
‘Please, I’d like to handle those 2
first, provided there isn’t anything more urgent’
She
nodded in agreement.
Sufficient
for the day are the troubles thereof, is that not what the scriptures said?
Fola mumbled to himself as he carried the tray containing the ward’s
‘valuables’ (IV lines, plaster etc)
He
felt like editing that portion of scripture at the moment. He just wanted to
replace one word.
And
that was ‘Sufficient’. And the replacing words should be ‘Ridiculously much’
He
set the IV line for the first patient with surprising ease. This must be the
Lord’s doing!
On
to bed 4. The patient with seizures. He examined him and made a mental note to
increase the drug dosage. With fleeting eyes, he noted that the child’s mother
was crying.
He
really should talk to her, encourage her and stuff like that, however, he
turned his back to leave. He substituted ‘ridiculously much’ for ‘sufficient’
once again and chuckled.
Nobody
sent him to medical school to become a pastor and no one could fault him if he
did his job and left the woman for the social health worker or chaplain to
encourage.
But
his heart refused to let him rest.
Fine!
He shrugged. I’ll talk to her.
‘E n le ma. Kilode ti e se n
sunkun?’ (Good evening ma. Why are you crying?)
‘Hmmn’
she sniffed.
‘Hmmn’.
Another sniff
‘Omo okunrin kan so so ti mo bi ni
yi. Ni ile baba e, won ti so pe ti ara e o bati ya, ki n ma pada wa mo’ (This
is the only son I have, and I have been instructed not to return to his
father’s house without him)
She
brought out her hands, and with trembling shoulders, said ‘Ki ni mo fe se? Mo de ti bi obinrin meta fun won’ (What will I do? I
have given birth to 3 daughters!)
‘Ha, omo obinrin de dara pupo o.’
(Females are very )
‘Ni bo! Se ni ile Yoruba ti wa yii
naa abi nibo miran?’ She sighed in defeat.
‘Ko da, omo binrin n di eniyan
Pataki. Ai moye dokita, lawyer, nurse, koda president paa paa’ (Females can
become doctors, lawyers, presidents!)
She
sighed again, apparently unconvinced. There was still more work to do
Fola
opted to pray with her.
‘E je ki a jo gbadura madam’
‘O ti yaa, dokita wa’
And
with that, he said a word of prayer along with the woman and instantly felt at
peace.
More
at peace than he’d felt within the last 12 hours.
He
replaced ‘ridiculously much’ with ‘sufficient’ once again and hoped it would stay
that way permanently- at least for the rest of the day.
He
remembered he had to see Dr. Amao. Good Lord, his laptop was still with him and
he urgently needed it to start preparing for presentations.
He
placed a phone call across to him.
‘God, let him pick o’
Fortunately,
he picked the call.
‘Guy, how far?’
‘Oga, I dey o’
‘Abeg, where you dey? I wan collect
the laptop’
‘No vex, you go fit come east wing
for female surgical ward?’
‘No wahala, I dey come’
He
walked briskly to the ward. He had less than sufficient time for pleasantries.
He
met Dr. Amao conversing with a female patient.
‘This guy get time o’
he soliloquized.
‘He don start again, the one wey
him do for school no reach abi?’
He
just hoped she didn’t end up as one of this guy’s victims!
‘Good morning’
he greeted the patient
She
was actually very pretty.
‘Good morning’
she said in a high pitched sonorous voice. Okay, she was really pretty!
His
friend caught him staring and motioned him over to where his laptop was.
He
went for his laptop.
As
he left the ward, he kept reminding himself that he had too many issues to be
admiring any girl now.
Afterall,
sufficient for the day were the troubles thereof!
Hope you enjoyed this episode? Read previous episodes on this blog by simply typing 'Dokita' into the search box. See you next week!
Comments
Post a Comment