By Adeola Soetan
Coronavirus is real. That is my belief from my science background and from what I have learnt from the WHO, NCDC and other medical sources. Other people have the right to believe, partly believe, doubt, or not believe at all, while the conversation on experience, views and enlightenment continues.
There is no crime about that and there shouldn’t be. Experience is the best teacher, so, patients who have gone through Covid-19 isolation centre care have better experience to relate to us to believe or not.
A pregnant woman needs to have gone through the labour room to have practical experience of what childbirth is all about. The best female doctor or midwife who is yet to give birth in her life can never share the labour room experience beyond her text book or observational experience.
Patient’s right is human right; right to express themselves, form opinion, informed or not, of how they were treated or maltreated, on the potency or otherwise, and attitude of their care givers. It’s also part of patient’s right to keep mute.
Patients are best “doctors” to themselves because doctors rely more on their responses, both verbal and body, to treatment before knowing what next drugs or treatment to be given.
Have we not heard of some patients, including some who have never been to school before, forming bad opinions about well qualified doctors and nurses?
“Dokita yen ko mo se’ (that doctor is not good)”
Ogun ti Dokita yen fun mi ko sise” (the prescribed drugs by doctor not effective)”
Those are feedbacks from patients, it’s now left for the clinic to analyze the feedback for good or bad.
Some patients particularly the elderly, pregnant women and nursing mothers, literally run away from some doctors, particularly in public hospitals, to avoid being treated by them.
There was a period in General Hospital, Sokenu, Abeokuta, that old people/patients would rather wait for one famous consultant to attend to them than be treated by any other qualified doctor. I can’t recall the consultant’s name. He’s short with mustache and wears a pair of glasses. He featured regularly on our Health Programme on NTA Abeokuta, in the 80s.
He later established his own clinic and most elders followed him there. That’s patient’s right of choice.
Funny enough, if a more qualified consultant was forced on those elders, they might not get better. Can we call that medical psychology or doctor-patient cultivated relationship leading to confidence building?
My family doctors; Dr. Maku Tititoo, and Dr. Balogun are exceptional when it comes to relationship building and trying to make medicine people’s friendly, through their enlightenment to lessen the fear and anxiety.
Now to those who think that any post-isolation centre patient or anyone at all who doubts the existence of Covid-19 or coronavirus should be crucified. I laugh at their hypocrisy and unnecessary “Medical Feferity” to convince us how enlightened and patriotic they are.
First, they should tell us which disease has not been doubted by the people in this country, with its failing medical services.
So, why should doubting coronavirus be a special crime?
The very low attendance at hospitals but high attendance at churches, Orioke, mosques, spiritual and herbal homes, is an open testimony of the doubt people have for many diseases, as conceptualized by modern medicine and that should be our general concern not the Feferity because Covid-19 is a global pandemic.
Why should many sick people drink “Hantu” Anointing oil or “Agbo” to seek to cure fibroid, stroke, cerebral meningitis, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, polio, cancer, infertility, insomnia and many other diseases, if not an expression of doubt over conventional medicine validation of such ailments and the treatment protocol?
There have always been doubts and there will always be, in as much as our healthcare challenges and government attitude remain the same.
Modern medicine is not occultism. It is open and will continue to be more revealing to enhance patients’ confidence. Patients should continue to talk to further enhance openness and conversation.
There was a time in this country when patients were not told their blood pressure, temperature and glucose level when tests were taken.
You would just see the nurses and doctors doing kurukere kurukere around the patients, keeping them in suspense.
There was a time pregnant women didn’t know the sex of their foetus or their exact delivery dates and prayer warriors fed fat on nervous expectant mothers. Most of those medical myths have gone with the wind of “cassino medicine”.
Since medicine is getting open and more open, patients should also learn to speak and speak out for us, as potential patients, to pick the good, the bad and ugly from their experiences.
The Ondo State governor’s wife, Mrs Akeredolu, a breast cancer survivor and many other courageous survivors have been a model of shining light in this regard.
Today, I have researched into black seed oil as a body system immune booster. This, I never heard before, until Governor Makinde, of Oyo State, revealed it as part of what he took while in isolation after contracting Covid-19.
I commended him for speaking out and disagreed with those who felt he should have kept quiet. Kept quiet for what? I don’t understand.
Survivors of Covid-19 and other diseases should endeavor to always speak out, and speak out for knowledge sharing.
In their revelation as novice or expert, there’s something to gain and those who want to hold on to any perceived negative content of their revelation are also expressing their right to have opinions.
It is part of conversation, since all of us, including doctors are patients or will be patients of one disease or the other, one day, as we move gradually to the departure hall.
