Korle-bu: The Point Of No Return

You know how I mentioned in my earlier blog about social disparities and the shock of discovering the differences… well not so much of a shock…. between the urban and rural areas? Well, I had another shock last night when I accompanied my mum the beautiful Dr. A to Korle-bu (Main Teaching Hospital in Accra) to go see my Ex-Uncle…. Lol yea I know Ex-Uncle. mmmh where was I.. Ah yes so we go see my sick Ex-uncle who was rushed to the emergency room @ Korle-bu.

So my mum takes the lead inside while I park the car, following afterwards.

I finally get there and my mum is nowhere to be found plus I can’t call her coz she has my phone and all. So the only thing I could do was wait for her at the entrance which I did.

While waiting I begin to hear someone scream and howling in pain, naturally I shouldn’t be worried coz I know they are in good hands since they are in the hospital(Obviously) but she keeps going on and on plus the nurses are sitting around not doing anything to help her coz they have already given the lady a drip. I think she should be around my age. I was like “geez” she is in so much pain I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she felt.

I started looking round and then realized that there were not enough beds for the sick patients and the staff lacked the motivation to relieve patients off their pain. Can you imagine yourself working trying your best to help your company grow while the infrastructure isn’t available, wouldn’t you find it stressful? There was another guy in a bed next to me who need blood coz he looked anemic plus he also needed surgery cos of a huge lump extending out of his lower chest area. He had just been given something to ease the pain but had been not given the blood even though he looked like he really needed it. It was a Catch-22.

But something funny and a little ironic happened as well. Earlier in the day my boss told me a story about how she sat in a taxi going to a funeral a couple of years back and the people she sat next to were bashing/talking trash about the family who were bereaved. It was only later when they all met at the house where the funeral was that they realized that my boss knew the people who they had just bashed. There was shock on and horror all over their faces.

Well the same thing happened to me at the hospital last night. So you know how my mum went in before I did right? The nurses and doctors didn’t know I came with her. I think my mum made a call to their Superior and asked her if she could get someone to look after my Ex-Uncle and if possible transfer him to ICU (Intensive care unit). Let me just say they did know my mum was a Doctor. Guess what I’m standing there waiting for my mum to show up and these Health workers are busy talking about how there’s a woman in one of the emergency rooms with a patient and she’s giving commands and how she called the boss Dr. L and trying to get the patient moved so he gets special attention. They also made a statement about how if the patient is giving extra treatment, whether they (Health workers) would get visas? So they keep going on and on till Dr. A comes and says thanks everybody for being so nice and now mentions her name and they all go silent… what gave them the final blow came.. when my mum came over to me and said she was done and that we should leave. You should have seen the look on their faces… it was golden…..I am sure they felt really stupid…