13th February, 2013
Recently I wept over the death of a very young girl called Ogaga Okparavero who had asthma. She was so young and had a full life ahead of her but I guess it was her time; or was it really?
I started asking myself questions like, what if she was born in a better country? By that I mean another country with good health care facilities and dedicated medical practitioners who would not use the frustration of their poor treatment by the government to punish citizens who have not done anything to offend them.
I cried for the young girl not just because she died but how she died. The pain came when I heard of the struggle to save her life which would have been so possible only if we had more passionate doctors and nurses who treat human beings as important.
The poor girl had a bad crisis in her home; her mom and sister tried to rush her to the hospital only to be attacked by armed robbers who were terrorizing the neighborhood.
They begged the armed robbers to let them go because of the situation Ogaga was in. Surprisingly, the armed robbers even had a better heart and more compassion than the hospital they went to.
The robbers let them go and they finally got to a hospital hoping their case would be treated as an emergency, seeing that this young girl was almost giving up. To their greatest shock, without even trying to resuscitate the young girl the hospital told them they did not have oxygen so there was nothing they could do.
My goodness! I thought to myself, these hospitals without the basic requirements of the hospital management board should all be shut down.
Dejected and so scared, they left that hospital to another one and before they could even attend to them they were required to fill cards, pay money, etc. The wickedness of it all really beats my imagination because the young girl had stopped breathing with all the delays, her colour had started changing. Goodness me!
The doctor then finally came to see the body only to order them to take a dead body out of his hospital. He was actually angry that a dead body was brought in to his hospital. What madness is that? How did he know she was brought in dead? If they had attended to her and tried to save her life first before worrying about money, would she not at least be stabilized Why are we so wicked? Why do we not care about human lives? How did we get to the point where money is more important to these doctors and nurses than saving the lives that they promised to save when they were in medical school? How many of these people actually went to proper schools for this?
I am sure most of you have heard about the smart trick one of the governors of the country pulled, which led to the sack of a lot of nurses. He went into one of the most popular hospitals in a very convincing disguise and was treated like a dog because he didn’t look like he had money. This went on for so long that he took his disguise off and all the nurses started running all over the place. He relieved them of their duties which I thought was fantastic.
A lot of people have died in the hands of the same people they run to for help.
Do we plan to be sick? Do we plan to have crisis? Do we plan to be shot? Do we plan to have accidents? What if these things happen at the time you don’t have a dime in your pocket but it’s an emergency? Do we die because no one will attend to us if there is no immediate cash? Is this how life is supposed to be?
We have killed a lot of our people in this country and I am in so much pain because I am not even sure who to blame anymore. I don’t know if it’s the hospitals who don’t attend to emergencies until they see money, or the government who will not pay them on time till they go on strike, or the electricity which is non-existent, thereby making the hospitals insist on payment so they can buy diesel to power their generators.
Ogaga is gone today, tomorrow it can be anyone.
May her soul and the souls of those who have died due to negligence rest in perfect peace? Amen.
An art exhibition in honor of Ogaga Okparavero is being held from 9-17 February at Water Works Gallery, 3B Unity Close, off Africa lane, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Nigeria. This exhibition is being presented by the late Ogaga’s sister Stacey Okparavero, who I believe is one of the most talented visual artists in the country today. I am proud to say that some of my paintings are by Stacey who has also done a beautiful portrait of me. Stacey is also a singer and an actress who trained and starred in the high school musical stage play.
I ask you all to please pass by and encourage this young girl who watched her sister pass on gradually and wants to immortalize her.
God bless you all for your constant support. As you pray for the Okparavero family please pray for Nigeria as well.
Quote: Greed brings grief to the whole family, but those who hate bribes will live. Proverbs 15: 27