How NYSC doctor died saving Lassa fever patients
Born on the 12th January, 1980, the late doctor did her primary and secondary education at Jalingo. She also did NCE at College of Education Jalingo before enrolling to read Medicine at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The mother of three children did her houseman-ship and national service at FMC Jalingo. According to the husband, Alhaji […]
Born on the 12th January, 1980, the late doctor did her primary and secondary education at Jalingo. She also did NCE at College of Education Jalingo before enrolling to read Medicine at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The mother of three children did her houseman-ship and national service at FMC Jalingo. According to the husband, Alhaji Abdulnasir Bowbodi, her hard work and dedication to duty made people think she was a staff of the hospital.“She was so kind and accommodating that sometimes she did things at her expense. She would go an extra mile to buy drugs for needy patients,” he said.
In an emotion laden voice, Bowbodi said his wife’s passion for her work was what consumed her, describing her as an honest and hardworking person. “She was the kind of woman that every man would wish to have as a wife. She used to do those little things that when a woman does for a man he would surely appreciate. She was so humble that it was hard to believe that she was a doctor,” he added.
Bowbodi said he is traumatized by the manner of his wife’s death. He said he keeps remembering how his wife gave birth to a baby girl prematurely and how the baby was incubated; and the dreary 20-odd hours-journey from Jalingo to Irrua, punctuated by his wife’s demand for water and juice and then the convulsions that prevented her from communicating with him. “It all started after a very hectic night call. When she came back the following morning, she complained that she was not feeling fine and asked to be taken to hospital but I said all she needed was just good bed rest. But she insisted so that evening I took her to hospital and doctor placed her on bed rest for two days.”
Bowbodi said after the two day she still was not better. The fever and fatigue continued and she had to stay in hospital. On the fifth day, she was delivered prematurely of a baby girl because she was seven months pregnant. “There was persistent fever and nobody thought it was Lassa Fever, only for the sickness to take a more complicated dimension. It was on the third day after delivery that it was suspected to be to be Lassa Fever,” he said.
The husband said one of the traumatic experiences he had was when his wife, the late Dr. Shettima asked to be taken to her baby where she was incubated at the Specialist Hospital Jalingo. “We went there, she held the baby and I was even joking with her that the baby was more beautiful than our firstborn, Fatima, who looks so much like her mother. I never knew that was going to be the last moment she would hold her baby.”
But it was the tiresome journey from Jalingo to Irrua, just five days after her premature delivery that has left Bowbodi with nightmares. He said she convulsed on the way to Irrua and had to be resuscitated by one Dr. Yanick. At Irrua, she had two dialyses within five days before she finally passed on. “She had lost her memory and after the first round of dialysis she managed to talk and died less than 24 hours after the second round of dialysis,” he said.
Bowbodi said his wife’s death has taught him lessons, one of which is that good governance is key to the survival of citizens. “Death is inevitable but if there were facilities to diagnose early, my wife would have survived.”
His most traumatic experience was when the authorities of the hospital ordered that the premature baby be removed from the hospital because of fear that she might have also been infected with the virus, like her mother. He said the Specialist Hospital was the only health facility in the state with incubators so it became emotionally devastating for him when the baby was to be removed. “It took the intervention of notable personalities in the state before the baby was allowed to stay. Thank god she has now been discharged and she is doing fine. By 4th April she would have been nine months fetus but by the grace of God, she will be a two-month-old baby by then.” He said the baby is named Aisha, after her mother, and her naming ceremony came a day before her mother died at Irrua.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) State Coordinator for Taraba, Hajia Zainab A. Isah said Dr. Shettima’s death is big loss to the country and the state, which has very few female doctors. The coordinator said she did not know of Lassa fever until she heard that one of her corps members was taken to Irrua for treatment of the ailment. She said she did not know Dr. Shettima in person but her zonal coordinator said she was kind and disciplined. “All her struggles are now in vain. Nobody will be happy with this kind of death. For a woman of such young each and training, it is really a great loss,” she said.
Reacting to the Lassa fever infection on health workers, Dr. Ogugua Osi-Ogbu, a Consultant Physician and Coordinator of Lassa Fever Infection Control at the National Hospital, Abuja, she said this is called Nosocomial infection. According to her, (Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)) also remain a significant hazard for health workers as well as other patients and families visiting a hospital or healthcare facility. “These infections infection occurring in a patient in a hospital or other healthcare facility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. This includes infections acquired in the hospital but appearing after discharge and also occupational infections among staff of the facility or hospital as the case may be.
Despite their best intentions, all healthcare workers are at maximum risk if they work unprotected while caring for the infected person or patient, especially when there is contact with the body fluid. Sometimes there may be minor cuts on the skin, minor abrasion, urine of the patient etc.”
Osi-Ogbu however said most at risk medical persons are the anesthetists. For example, in the process of making a patient to sleep, trying to get the vein lines without proper protection, an anesthetist is likely to get in contact with such a patient so close that can cause infection. They may also be potential vectors of disease, disseminating virulent microorganisms among people in the environment. Because patients can shed infectious microorganisms into the healthcare environment, by the virtue of their constant contact with patients, healthcare workers are also at risk of transmitting microorganisms among themselves.
Osi-Ogbu however advise that the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) must be emphasize especially on any suspicious patient carrying yellow fever, Lassa fever and such related diseases. “Health workers handling such patients should wear protective body suit, covering head to toe, with goggles, face marks, gloves, practically everywhere you can think of. Equipments must never be re-used in any form. In Lassa fever suspected cases, patient should not be move in and out of different wards or environments in the health facility, they should be isolated.”