By Jinnytesi
You’ve probably read from my previous blogs about the unfortunate accident in which a pioneer bus rammed into me and God spared my life! HURRAY! I sure am still here for a purpose. Titus 2!
Today, I’ll concentrate on the day of emergency…my experience in my time of emergency. Who knows, yesterday was me, tomorrow it could be you or your loved one.
The bus flashed lights at me and I just stopped the car. I knew I was FINISHED, A GONE CASE! Little did I know that God would give ne a second chance at life. I saw people trying to break into my car to get me out…I couldn’t quite make out what was happening until a gentleman told me to stay still until they got me out. He carried me in his strong arms like a baby and I felt excruciating pain so I asked him to “first wait” so I sleep a bit. Contrary to my demands, he told me not to sleep and asked for my mom’s number. I asked him not to call my mummy…mummy wouldn’t take this pressure. So I gave him my siblings’ numbers; Sophy’s, Yuhi’s and Zebzo’s. He mentioned that they were rushing me to the Mulago Hospital casuality ward but I refuted. I mumbled to him that Kadic was closer so he agreed. (Bless his soul)
I don’t remember much about the journey….I woke up in Kadic Hospital, Bukoto. I woke up to a shouting nurse instructing me to remove my dress. I tried to lift my hands but failed. I recognized my brother Ian at my bedside. I asked him to get scissors and cut the dress, which he did so swiftly. He slitted the back of the dress… Then the nurse shouted that I lift my hands out, but I couldn’t. I was helpless. I asked Ian to slice the dress into pieces until it was off my body…. lucky, he did and the dress was finally off.
Next, I saw a needle near my eye…they were stitching a cut I had got. It was rather painful!! They didn’t bother to give me an anaesthetic, those evil nurses. Lucky, I was already in so much pain so this was a bit negligible. My whole body HURT! I was getting tired of breathing..my chest hurt, I wished I could be dead or paralysed. I looked at the ceiling all night and listened to all the other patients cry. I could hardly even make a sound…
Later, I was taken to the X-Ray room and a “very unclear diagram” of my ribs was taken. One broken rib was identified. My right leg hurt so bad, I couldn’t move it so I mumbled this to the nurse when she came that I might have a fracture. She asked me if I could feel the leg and I told her that I didn’t know..so she asked me to move my toes, which I did without difficulty and she concluded that the leg was fine. She said, “if you had a fractured limb you wouldn’t have been able to say. You’d have been wailing like a child.” I tried to keep myself together..the more I cried, the more pain I felt, especially in the chest.
In the meantime, I heard a nurse whispering to my elder sister Sophy about the different types of rooms they had and if she would consider taking me to the VVIP section which was an amount I didn’t even hear. She was more interested in selling! She was doing room sales instead of giving me the nursing care that I needed, this bloody nurse! If I could get my hands on her todayyyy!!!
The right side of my face too was swollen. I could hardly open my mouth..the nurse simply brought a tiny trough of water and instructed my mummy to massage. She didn’t bother to check for a fracture. So mummy said she wasn’t a nurse and had no clue on how to massage patients with fractures and swellings. So she came and pulled the trough away from her, lucky for her none of the hot water splashed on the little side of my face that wasn’t distorted. VERY LUCKY!
A few hours later, I couldn’t take the pain. I thought I was going to die…I wonder if people die from pain.lol. I signalled to a nurse passing by and she came. I gathered energy to speak! I could speak!! I had not lost my voice or teeth! HURRAYY, I COULD STILL SPEAK! So I requested for a pain killer and explained to her that I had kept awake all night because of pain. Then she went to bring a pain killer. Wait for it… she came back empty handed so I thought the doctor was coming behind her to administer it. Boy, wasn’t I joking?!? When she reached my bedside, she reached into her pocket and gave me two fat panadol tablets!! She was holding them in her hands. Here I was, an accident victim, being handed PANADOL! Maybe if it had been panadol extra…. I WAILED!! I don’t even know where I got the energy to cry this time.
I began to lose even the little hope I had left. I just turned to mummy and shouted at her that we leave and go to Mulago and die happy. I threw the panadol tablets on the floor and the nurse walked away. Mom stayed at my bedside and tried to calm me down and soothed me to stop crying and preserve the little energy I had left. Luckily, my sister, Yuhi walked in with a friend. Her friend is a doctor! So he did a few checks, I told him everything I thought was amiss and started crying because of my leg that I had failed to move. He calmed me down and assured me that everything would be well..that I would walk again. None of this made sense at this point in time!
I don’t even know how I didn’t hit a depression at this point…. anyway, Dr. Friend (I can’t disclose the name for Yuhi’s privacy) advised mummy to ask for a referal to Nsambya hospital where he would request his colleagues to monitor us. Soon the bill was brought and mom requested for their ambulance so that im transferred to Nsambya hospital. Before she could even finish her statement, they told her the price we would have to pay for it. They asked for about five hundred thousand Uganda shillings. I doubt even their driver gets that much. The cost was unreasonably high! So mom called her bosses (lucky for us, she works with a hospital) and requested for an ambulance which was sent over in less than ten minutes!! Mom requested for a stretcher on which I was to be carried on to the ambulance and they REFUSED! THE MANAGEMENT OF KADIC HOSPITAL BUKOTO REFUSED TO GIVE US A STRETCHER!
Here I was, an accident victim that couldn’t sit up or even turn in bed…I could only sleep on my back!! Anyway, the ambulance driver that had come to pick us then went back into his car to dismantle the stretcher from the car and when he got to the entrance, they told him he couldn’t bring it in. So one nurse brought us a wheel chair. *sigh* I was carried and placed into to the wheel chair and taken to the ambulance. I was in PAIN!!! Yikes!
On getting to the ambulance, mom requested for nurses to come and help lift me into the ambulance and they REFUSED!! They answered, “the ambulance should have an ambulance attendant.” So the driver came and carried me onto the stretcher….the PAIN!! But I survived. Somehow!
We got to Nsambya hospital in no time, nurses came running with a stretcher and carried me into the emergency room. The doctor asked me what had happened and all I said was that a pioneer bus rammed into me… so he asked if I had been given a shot of Tetanus Toxide (sp) and I hadn’t so he quickly gave me one. The bloody medics at Kadic hadn’t cared to imunise me, even with all the cuts and bruises I had all over my body!! The doctor then went ahead to ask me what hurt as he took notes and sympathised with me. (bless his soul) God knows I needed to re-awaken the hope lost. He then instructed the nurses to take me for scans and X-Rays and off they wheeled me.
Fast forward, the scans of the stomach showed that everything was ok, the head scan showed that there was no internal bleeding, the X-Ray of the ribs showed that I had three fractured ribs, the X-Ray of the jaws showed that my right jaw had been fractured, the X-Ray of the right pelvis was FINALLY done and it showed that my pelvis bone had shifted and was out of position!! I was admitted and medicine was prescribed. Also, as soon as I was taken to the ward, a pain killer was infused through my vein. A few minutes later, I was able to smile again! My friends and family who saw me couldn’t believe I was smiling again!
To the management of Kadic Hospital Bukoto, a lot is desired! I have heard so many stories of people who die because of carelessness of your practitioners. What I went through was traumatizing, I almost hit a depression. It’s a pity that I had to go through this in the state in which I was. I hope this message reaches the concerned parties!
Till later!
This story first appeared on jinnytesi.wordpress.com