A man dying of a brain haemorrhage
Approaching Kogi State about 25 minutes after leaving
Abuja, the first police checkpoint I noticed was with a
barricade of what looked like some bags of rice which
had encroached the road, forcing cars to slow down. Just
right about 10 minutes drive came another checkpoint
after the first one but the terrible accident occurred just
before the checkpoint. It would have been worse if there
was no police check. They made the emergency call; the
ambulance would not have come on time if it happened
distance away from Abuja. The grand rule of any driver
especially in Nigeria was 100km/hr on highway but this
man was on 200km/hr. No wonder some people have
phobia for driving.
The horrific accident and blood spilling on the ground
made it impossible for us to stop and there was
absolutely nothing we could do. Moreover, I overheard
among the crowd (since we were moving really slowly
and I had unwound my glass) that the patient was losing
a lot of blood, for his neck had stuck out of the
windscreen, hanging like a suspended hanger. The sound
of the ambulance gave me hope that the woman and her
unborn child would make it. Faint sobs could be heard
from the crowd. “Please save my husband, call a doctor!
I’m begging you! He’s only 45years old! I can’t live
without him”. I saw that he was badly injured but I am a
neurosurgeon and I was helpless. I could not move if not I
would have treated him before the ambulance arrived.
“Please! Someone help me save him”. “Don’t worry,
ambulance is on the way, they are group of men there, I
am sure they can do their best till it gets here” said one
of the people in the crowd. One person from the crowd
moved away from her and told the next man that her
husband had lost so much blood, his situation didn’t
seem too optimistic.
