Thursday, April 22, 2010
Vampires against Mothers in Ghana
We are not developing – we are primitive! Why is it that in 2010, so many women die during childbirth? It is rubbish! Cow dung! I do not think you need state-of-the-effing-art equipment to prevent these thousands of deaths. What you need is competent medical personnel. What you need is caring people. What you need is less negligence. What you need is strong punishment for negligent medical practitioners and establishments. What you need is a jail term or two for a doctor or nurse or midwife or quack. Don’t no doctor feel tres bien in Accra, Bawku or Half Asini for the next year unless maternal deaths nationwide are below 100! Or may you choke on your stethoscope...or sphygmomanometer!
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Right on!
ReplyDeleteAmen, NYA, you should've been a judge.."To the dungeons with you I say!" (Upperclass twit accent is advised) ;)
ReplyDeleteIt always saddens me to here of people dying in this day and age during child birth! Aren't there laws to protect these women and their families? Nana Yaw, you're the lawyer; what being done?
ReplyDeleteLast year June, my brother's friend lost his sister to these vampires. she'd been married less than two years, this was her first baby.
ReplyDeleteMother and child lost in a day.
I still can't believe Cynthia is gone.
You're right - a few medical personnel need to go to jail.
ReplyDeleteBut you know, competent medical personnel alone won't do anything. You may not need state of the art equipment, but you do need some. Even if every incompetent medical person was jailed mothers and children will still die, probably at the same rate as now. They will die when there's not enough blood in the blood bank for a woman who isbleeding profusely. They will die when there's no oxygen for a C-section. They will die when the scissors for episiotomys are so blunt that you need to cut 4, 5 times before you can continue in assisting the birth.
They will die when we don't have even one little oxygen tank for children who are born with breathing problems. They will die when there's no ambulance to take them to Korle-Bu because they must be in NICU. I saw it happen at La General Hospital: the most hardworking midwives and doctors I've ever seen - and that baby died in my arms because there was no oxygen tank. A baby whose heartbeat was so strong moments before.
Oh, did I mention that we took longer than necessary to get his head unstuck because we did not have shar enough scissors? So we were cutting like meat while the baby remained stuck and the mother was screaming in pain. TMI? That's the reality of most medical personnel.
They will keep dying when there are only 10 midwives and 30 women come in to deliver at the same time. They will die when 10 women need c-sections, but there is only enough water for 3 or 4 operations, or only one anaesthesiologist. They will die when there are no GLOVES to perform a simple pelvic exam.
It's not only about negligence - even the most competent ones can't do much under such inhumane working conditions. Yet MPs are given $20,000 or whatever to buy cars. It doesn't take $20, 000 to stock up on gloves or 3 or four scissors. Women die everyday in childbirth, not just the wives of the rich, famous or powerful. It only becomes an issue in our country, it seems, when the dead is one of those three categories.
@ Lady Jaye: Your comments are most insightful, and sure we must do better as a nation. However, what is really tipping some of us off are the deaths that result from the totally unprofessional and 12th Century habits of persons in the medical field, especially the so-called nurses.
ReplyDelete@Kissi - you are very right. There do abound personnel who ought to be in jail for their behaviors, but with the status quo, not much will change even if they are all jailed and the 'correct' ones are left.
ReplyDelete@ Lady Jaye...you said it all. You a doctor or a nurse? Very heartfelt.Bravo!
ReplyDelete@ Kwame: Just a student now. Wanna be a doctor.
ReplyDelete@Lady Jaye: Cool. But perhaps if a pregnant woman dies as a result of the unavailability of basic medical tools to deliver her, it may, in a sort of perverse way be less painful than when death is procured by the failure or refusal of a supposed professional to lift a finger, though admittedly it doesn't change the fact that the deceased is still dead. At least, in that case we would be hopeful that preventable delivery deaths would not occur as long as the tools are available.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty speechless at the piercing, almost tangible delivery of fury...but I agree, they do need to be punished. Severely! Like Lady Jaye said, we do need some equipment, but implementing that will only be effective when there are measures in place to ensure that these bloody, unfeeling idiots are taught to care. When there are structures in place to deal with them in an equally painful way.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if all the disabilities we see in Ghana are the result of not having a mid-wife at birth?
ReplyDeleteI'm used to nursing being a calling. With some of the nurses I have come across I wonder if they have found their vocation because they are sadists!
@ Lady Jaye...keep it going! There is hope with people like you around.
ReplyDelete@ Lady Jaye, BRAVO! My sentiments exactly. I have to say, that with maternal and infant mortality being such an obvious problem in the country, it's shocking that our president chose to speak at all when the deputy minister's wife died. Thousands of women die in childbirth in Ghana and he only notices the problem when a minister's wife dies?!!!
ReplyDeleteI am sorry the woman passed away but i feel the problem should have been dealt with ages ago! Give our personnel what they need to do their jobs. Allow them to bring life into this world and help those at risk of leaving it early. And for God's sake, ACT! Don't just sit on your thumbs and then jump up to criticise when the problem hits close to home.
Is it all those other womens' faults that they did not have a politician husband? What of THEM?!!! My heart cries out for all the unfortunate souls and not just the one up on the soap box. We need to remember, she was a mother. A person, just like the others. And remove status and politics from it.
Just my opinion
I agree with Lady Jaye about the lack of basic medical needs. However, I also agree with the negligence and incompetence of our medical professionals. How can a doctor diagnose me by cutting me off in mid-sentence of my symptoms? Are they magicians or just too good to be bothered with details of exactly whats wrong with me? I thought listening was one of the most important lessons you learn in medical school?
ReplyDelete