‘I watched helplessly as my twin died’

Child birth brings joy to the mother. When the birth is of twins, her joy becomes boundless. But in Awodis’ case, their joy turned to anguish as they watched their twins struggle for survival; it was heartrending witnessing how the life of one of them went out. He was an innocent victim of the ongoing strike by resident doctors, paying the cost, with his life, for what he could not have known, denied the chance of even opening his beautiful eyes to see what the world he had just been born into, looked like. It is said that “when two elephants fight, the grass suffers”. This was the pathetic situation the Awodis found themselves in, when they lost one of their new born twins, barely five days old, fallout of the strike embarked upon by resident doctors all over the country.

“I watched helplessly as my babies struggled and gasped for breath, fighting all odds to be alive. It was an uneven battle; two tiny tots against the world outside. Death eventually defeated one of them because of insensitivity of striking doctors. If only they were not on strike, my babies would still be alive today. Though I lost one but then, the other is only clinging on to life desperately as she is in the neonatal intensive care unit,” Mrs. Gloria Awodi said, fighting back tears while talking to our reporters.

The plight of the Awodis came to light during a morning political radio talk show, when a caller appealed to resident doctors to come to the aid of the couple. Though it was reported that she underwent caesarean operation, that turned out not to be the case, as Weekly Trust found.

Outwardly calm, Mrs. Awodi displayed the virtue of a strong woman while narrating her ordeal. “I gave birth in Adonai Hospital, Mararaba and after delivery; I developed high blood pressure and had swollen legs. I was given some medication and discharged. On Monday at about 8am, I noticed that one of the twins started vomiting. I called my husband who rushed back home from work and we took the babies back to the clinic where they were delivered.”

She continued: “there, it was discovered that both babies had jaundice. We were told that the hospital lacked the equipment to handle the case and referred us to the Garki General Hospital. On our way to the hospital, we had an accident around Abacha Barracks near AYA junction.  Someone rammed into our car from the side and it was the grace of God that we all survived the crash.

From there, a Good Samaritan met us in that condition and took us in his car to the Garki General Hospital. We were attended to at the hospital and both babies were immediately placed on oxygen support. But after sometime, they said the situation was beyond them and we had to look for another hospital that could handle the problem. Though the doctors were not on strike there as it is being managed by a private consultant, yet they did not have the necessary equipment to deal with the case and said we either go to State House Clinic or the National Hospital  as all other hospitals that could have been of greater help, were all on strike”.

Continuing, she said “we then decided to try the State House Clinic. But before then the doctors at the Garki General Hospital still placed the babies on oxygen and drip pending when we would get a hospital to take over the case. This had to be done because they were already in a critical state. It was just like a mini hospital for the babies in the car that conveyed us to the State House Clinic. A doctor from the Garki Hospital also accompanied us to ensure the kids were being managed properly until we could get a hospital that would take over the case.

“On getting to the State House Clinic, we were told that there was no space. We spent over 30 minutes trying to convince the nurse about the condition of the children, but she was adamant, insisting that there was no space. We had no choice but to move from there again to Zanklin, a private hospital and unfortunately, we were also told that they did not have space too, that we should come back the next day, as they were trying to manage the influx of patients they had due to the strike. Then it had become practically clear that the babies could not survive without oxygen even for a minute, not to talk of the next day.

“We then moved again to Abuja Clinic. There no one even deemed it fit to come to us and find out what our problem was or even see the babies. When they finally attended to us, we were told the same old story:  no space.

“It was at that point that the doctor who accompanied us from Garki General Hospital made a call to her husband, who is also a consultant at the National Hospital, to negotiate a space there for us and we then proceeded to the National Hospital. When we got there, we were admitted and the oxygen that we came with disengaged, and theirs was put on for the babies.”

She continued: “About 15 or 20 minutes later, after the doctor who is a national youth corps member, had tried to stabilize the babies, instruction came from a matron that they were not allowed to admit anyone in the hospital because of the ongoing strike and threatened the doctor with severe penalties. The doctor had no choice but to disengage the oxygen. By this time, the doctor who came with us from Garki Hospital had already left with their own oxygen as she thought we were in better and more secure hands.”

At this point, Mrs. Gloria said, she had given up all hope and just watched helplessly as her babies wailed and gasped for breath. Summoning up strength to narrate ordeal further, she said, “a doctor at the National Hospital suggested that we go to Diff Clinic in Aso Drive, where she said the right equipment to handle the case was available. So we left for the Diff without oxygen on the babies and by the time we got to Diff, one of the babies was already clenching and unclenching her fists and gasping seriously for breath. She gave up the ghost even before the doctors could attend to her. So the other twin was quickly admitted and taken to the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital where they battled to save her life till dawn, when we were finally told that she had been stabilized and placed under strict observation. She also had to be given blood transfusion. It is a very restricted area that deals with just the baby, an attached nurse and the doctors.

“So, you see this is the travail I have gone through and still going through as the bill here itself is something else but I had no choice if I wanted to see my baby survive. I cannot bear to lose both of them,” she said in tears.

Expenses:

Everyone knows the expense of engaging the services of a private clinic or hospital. Weekly Trust sought to find out how the Awodis were managing.

Explaining further, the twins’ father, Mr. Awodi Peter, said on the first day from Garki Hospital to Diff Hospital, he spent N250, 000 and does not now know how much he still has to pay as the surviving baby is still in the intensive care unit. But he is also grateful to his place of work that has assisted in some way by offsetting part of the bills, saying he does not know where to start from when it comes to paying the balance. “They have been of tremendous assistance as they have helped offset some bills, at least some weight has been taken off my shoulder. I just need to find how to pay the remaining bill that will be handed to me eventually.

Prayer:

“What I have gone through these few days is not something I would want anybody, especially mothers, to go through. I want to use this medium to appeal to the striking doctors that life is more important than the strike they have embarked on. The grudges they are trying to settle with the government is claiming the lives of innocent people. This child of mine was less than five days old but she was at the receiving end of the whole thing. She did not deserve to go through all the trauma and the eventual cruel death she got. She was an innocent child even the surviving one does not deserve this,” she said in tears.

The father of the babies also appealed to the doctors to reconsider their stand as they are serving humanity. “They should reconsider their stand so that members of the public are not the ones at the receiving end. The government should also do something about the complaints of these doctors because visiting these different hospitals and seeing what was going on there signified that a lot of lives will be lost if not already lost as long as this strike continues,” he said.

As for Mrs. Awodi, it will take some time for her to recover from the shock and nightmare she went through. ‘’I watched helplessly as my four-day old baby struggled for life while she kept staring at me as if asking ‘what is happening, why is this happening to me?’” And I could not give her the answer I knew she sought. Maybe I should have told her it was because of the insensitivity of our government and doctors that she had to pay the price with her life,” she said unable to control herself anymore and breaking down in tears.

How many lives will be on danger list and may eventually be lost, remains a question on the minds of many Nigerians who cannot afford the services of private hospitals.