Where on earth does this happen?

Well it happens in Nigeria and just last week. My nephew, Abdurrahman, a gorgeous boy of four, was almost murdered by a medical lab technician in Jos. Abdurrahman had a continuous fever for few days and was taken to a teaching hospital in Jos. A full blood count test was prescribed by the doctor, based […]

Well it happens in Nigeria and just last week. My nephew, Abdurrahman, a gorgeous boy of four, was almost murdered by a medical lab technician in Jos.
Abdurrahman had a continuous fever for few days and was taken to a teaching hospital in Jos. A full blood count test was prescribed by the doctor, based on the result, Abdurrahman was diagnosed with blood cancer (Leukemia). Immediately the nurse began preparing him for admission. For not exhibiting leukemic symptoms, Abdurrahman’s doctor suggested that the test should be repeated.
The news of Abdurrahman’s diagnosis dropped on our family like Hiroshima bombs. Terrified, abashed, and confused and with dozen of ‘’Innalillahi wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’un” repeated and murmured (From Allah we come and to Him we return; an Islamic prayer said when a calamity befalls one), my sister and I drove down to the hospital, and we met Abdurrahman’s mother in tears, we all hugged in pain and prayed.
While preparing a second full blood count test, the nurse suggested that Abdurrahman’s blood sample to be submitted with a pseudo name, his identity must be disguised or else the lab technicians will simply copy and paste from the earlier result, instead of his real name Abdurrahman Muhammad, the blood sample was re-submitted with his uncle’s name Bilyamin Zakariya.
We stood outside waiting for the result and praying hard to Allah to intervene. There it was finally, and Abdurrahman’s white blood cells were normal.  The test was repeated again at a different centre and again okay.
Abdurrahman’s wrong diagnosis raised many questions in my mind: What if the doctor and his mum had not insisted on repeating the test? What if the blood sample was re-submitted without disguising Abdurrahman’s identity? Would the lab technicians really copy paste from the earlier result as the nurse said they would? What if he was wrongly treated for Leukemia? A disease he never had. What if they killed him? How many patients have been wrongly killed? How many have they murdered? Do I blame them or do I blame the whole system?
While I narrate this event with pain, the purpose behind it is twofold; to lament about the level of negligence, indifference and nonchalant attitude and decay in our health care system and to warn people not to easily trust results of test conducted in our labs, at least have it repeated once, twice, thrice or even more at a different place. However, I want to gladly say that there are uncountable number of qualified lab technicians, nurses, doctors and scientists etc. that do their jobs very well and attend to patients selflessly.
Rahina Muazu, Jos, Plateau State.