My last hospital visit

Naturally, I am someone that detests hospitals and clinics but on this particular occasion, approximately a month ago, I had no option but to visit the hospital.

My only brother who had been ill for days had to be admitted in the hospital. He was diagnosed of malaria and respiratory tract infection all together. One would have thought it was just malaria or typhoid as all the symptoms he had been showing earlier were related to these ailments. Infact he had used all sorts of malaria medications and even typhoid medications with no improvement.

This goes further to show that we are fond of self medications and self diagnosis in this part of the world.

So I spent the whole day with my brother at the hospital and I witnessed two deaths. A man who had been diagnosed of chronic malaria and had been brought in the previous day, suddenly began to breathe abnormally, in what seemed like few minutes he had passed on.

A kid who had been rushed in by her mother and well wishers was immediately regarded as "brought in dead". A young wife who had been feeling weak and had used malaria and typhoid drugs for 3days was also rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that she had lost plenty of blood due to an ectopic pregnancy. She didn't die though.

I felt really sorry for the bereaved families and I secretly prayed that my brother got well soon enough so we could stay away from the health care environment as there were a lot of unpalatable situations I was witnessing. The doctors were kind and brief but a few of the nurses were cold.

My last visit to the hospital has made me realise that there is no 'small" ailment and we as individuals need to be more mindful of our health. We must never take any strange or uncomfortable symptoms for granted.

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