Jessica Oldham is a nurse anesthetistist I have never met but she went to Nigeria on a medical mission trip in 2010. I have seen plenty of medical mission pictures, some taken by my own family members who go as clinicians to give back, and they come back elated that they've done something to alleviate the desperate need in Nigeria. Jessica's pictures however, looked rather different from the others I have seen before. She posted them on Facebook, and I happened upon them quite by accident. I promptly asked her if I can repost on my page, and share with a much wider audience.
What caught my eye is that her pictures reflect the breakdown across the system, from requiring mobile police escort for routine trips, to clinics with devastatingly antiquated equipment, many of which do not even work anymore. Make no mistake, bad roads, dust, fumes from generators, cars, motorcycles, and noise are all threats to our health and quality of life.
Of course, every day, they saw very ill patients with no access to good health services. While many Nigerians, including my mother have gone on these trips before, few of us document the massive systemic breakdowns that ultimately result in patients dying before they should from treatable illnesses.
Jessica's pictures reflect something else; Nigerians no longer react to things that are abnormal in most other societies:
* Drivers disobeying road signs or traffic directions
(result: motor accidents);
* The necessity of mobile police escort for routine transportation
(result: breakdown in public safety);
* Lack of scrubs
(result: healthcare acquired infections);
* No water or electricity (result: broad patient safety risks)
* And the medical mission itself
(result: what happens when the US doctors and nurses leave? Lack of continuity of care).
A non-Nigerian nurse anesthetist who went with friends saw all of these societal characteristics with fresh eyes, and documented the chaos, from the mundane (roads) to the catastrophic (the patients horrible untreated conditions). See some of the pictures here, but I have spared you from some grotesque pictures.
Many people devote a lot of energy discussing public health issues in Nigeria. Chikwe Ihekwazu's nearly one-man efforts are massive and he's just one person. But the nurses, physicians, and other practitioners on the frontline in Nigeria frequently have to work in conditions with almost nothing, and they practically perform magic on a daily basis. And yet, we can do much better than this.
I have tried to stay away from public health issues on this blog since I do this for a living, but others' reactions to my reposting of the full set of pictures on Facebook has prompted me to write a few words about the tragic conditions people must contend with on a daily basis in Nigeria.
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