Kafayat Abdulazeez (25 years old lady) was not feeling too fine on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14, 2019. She decided to go to Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja, where she was admitted, and the doctors diagnosed that she had pneumonia. After the initial treatment she regained her strength. But painfully, the following day, Friday, her situation became worse and the hospital was no longer as responsive as they were supposed to be.
Mobile oxygen which was supposed to be used on her was not used. A drug was prescribed by her doctors, but the nurses didn’t give the prescription to the family until a day after. By then it was too late. That was how we lost our beloved friend, colleague and advocate.
We lost our friend, our volunteer, an anti-human trafficking and health advocate, Ms Kafayat Abdulazeez (Kaffy Harbdul), due to the carelessness of our medical practitioners and our unhealthy health system. We cannot call it a medical mistake. It was clearly a case of lack of value for life by our medical practitioners.
It is important to know that access to proper health treatment is a human right. Denying people treatment is an abuse of the right of citizens. Lack of value for the life of a patient is violation of the rights of the patient.
Kafayat would have been alive today if her treatment was taken seriously at Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja. She would have survived if those on duty treated her with a sense of emergency and urgency. While she was in the emergency unit, her health was not taken as an emergency. Her family begged and cried but no empathy was shown. A patient in the hospital had to place a call to doctors and kept begging on her behalf just to be treated, but all efforts proved abortive.
Kafayat was a lady who impacted communities and the less privileged. She had a lineup of community projects for this month. So many indigent people depended on her to put a smile on their faces. She is a volunteer with Devatop Centre for Africa Development and Project Pink Blue.
We are aware many have lost friends, colleagues, family members, etc., due to the poor health system and the unprofessional attitude of medical personnel. We know medical practitioners are humans and can make mistake, but they cannot be exonerated when they take lives for granted. Of course, we appreciate medical professionals who have been shown total commitment to their calling to save lives.
We can’t keep quiet because we lost one life because many lives may be lost due to the same factors that led to Kafayat’s death.
In the coming days, there will be a call for action because we cannot continue to be silent. We must collectively speak out and call on the relevant authorities to act swiftly to revamp our healthcare system.
We can’t close our eyes to this fact, and we can’t pretend everything is normal.
Our health system is unhealthy!
Written by friends and colleagues.
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