The recent death of Kelechi Precious, a Theater Art and Film study, student of the University of Port Harcourt, on Monday August 3, at the University Teaching Hospital (UPTH), was a sad incident that could have been avoided.
Miss Precious was said to have collapsed at her hostel bathroom while having her bath around 5 am Monday, and was taken to the University Teaching Hospital's Accident and Emergency Ward by fellow students, where she was reportedly rejected for lack of space. The students pleaded that the hospital make use of the car with which they took her to the hospital, as her bed, but that plea was turned down.
On the refusal to attend to the deceased at the Teaching Hospital, the students took her to Fountain Hospital at Ozuoba area of Port- Harcourt, on getting there, the doctor asked the students to go fetch Precious's relatives, thereafter directed them to take her back to the Teaching Hospital.
The students told the doctor at Fountain Hospital that they just left the Teaching Hospital, they were then directed to another hospital, Ebonyi Hospital where the doctor on duty confirmed that there was no life left in Precious. Not giving up that easily on their own, the students further took the deceased to the Military Hospital, where she was confirmed dead. They were advised to make an entry at any police station around. After making an entry at Choba Police Station, they took the corpse back to the University Teaching Hospital mortuary, where ironically, it was accepted. There is enough space to accept corpses in the Teaching Hospital, but not enough bed space to admit and attend to ailing citizens.
Following the frustrations their efforts met while trying to save the life of the late Kelechi Precious, the students, led by the Student Union Government (SUG) of the university took to the streets, to protest against the inability of the Teaching Hospital to save the young lady's life.
This is not the first time an incident like this has occurred, not just at the Rivers State University teaching Hospital, but in so many teaching hospitals across the country.
For an incident of this magnitude to occur in Port- Harcourt, the capital city of the oil rich Rivers State, one can not help but cry 'foul'. The resource 'curse' omen must have been at play, or how else can one describe a situation where a city supposed to be blessed with the black gold, lack 'enough' basic facility like 'beds' in its Teaching Hospital, while the stake holders busied them selves with endless combats and allegations of 'who's after whose life', instead of hiding their heads in shame. And shame....that seems to be just what we lack.
What is the State House of Assembly doing about this unfortunate incident, the management of the teaching hospital should have been summoned concerning this development. It will not be surprising if this too passed, and is forgotten, like the 'Aluu Four' killing.
This piece might pass as any other rant, as these stake holders are obviously not bothered. How can they be affected, when they and all theirs, are flown abroad at the slightest head-ache, while the masses, whom they pledged and claimed responsibility for, are the worse hit of every administration's irresponsible activities. A situation where avoidable deaths happen in our hospitals is totally unacceptable.
This should be a wake-up call for us all, though we can not change the past, we can not bring back the many lives lost due to government's inability to produce basic facilites in our hospitals, but we can all decide today to start setting things right.
- It begins with the government utilizing state funds in the channels they were meant to be use on, instead of cutting corners to enrich themselves.
- It begins with government officials disbursing funds without asking for 80% or any % cuts what so ever, before they will release 'contract' funds to contractors.
- It begins with these contractors getting jobs they were paid for, done, with the best quality materials and skilled workers there is.
Let us bear in mind that we can only reap what we have sown, corruption can only bred decadence, apart from the biblical miracle of Jesus, raising dead Lazarus, and Ezekiel's prophesy to dead bones, which raised and turned dead soldiers into a great legion, I have not come across a situation where a decayed object was redeemed.
The frustration and bitterness towards authority, being sowed into so many young lives, when the realization that they are indeed 'on their own', due to the actions of some government representatives, dawn on them, can only breed hostility and non-nonchalancy; I leave you to figure out what kind of broken leaders these 'victims' can turn into in the near future.
