First Lady’s jamboree: Accident Victim Still In Hospital

Mrs. Ifeanyi Chima was one of Lagos
delegates that attended a peace rally
organised for women by the First Lady, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan, in Abuja on August 15,
2013.
The vehicle, which Chima and five other
women were travelling in, had an accident at
Gwagwalada Road, near Abuja, when they
were going back to Lagos the following day.
Chima and four others were lucky to survive
the accident, but sustained various degrees of
injuries.
Their coordinator, Princess Abigael Adisa, died
in the crash. Until her death, Adisa was the
Coordinator of the Women for Change and
Development Initiative in Ifako/Ijaye Local
Government Area of Lagos.
Chima, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH
at the Intensive Care Unit of Primus
International Super Specialty Hospital
(popularly known as Indian Hospital) in Karu
on Tuesday, painted a sad picture of how she
almost lost her limbs to the accident.
She called on Nigerian doctors to "sit up" like
their foreign counterparts and improve on their
relationship with patients.
She said, "I was involved in a fatal accident
along Gwagwalada Road after the Women rally
in Abuja on our way back to Lagos. We were
six women and a driver in the vehicle; five of
us had injuries. Our coordinator died.
"Five of us were brought to this hospital. I had
a broken left arm and dislocation on my left
leg. Mrs. Titilayo Olorunda also had a broken
leg. She has been taken to another ward
because she was formerly here (in the
intensive care unit). But after a surgery she
was taken to her ward. When I had the injury, I
had some open wounds in my hands."
Chima also gave a vivid account of her
experiences at the University of Abuja Teaching
Hospital in Gwagwalada where, she said, a
particular doctor exhibited poor attitude to
patients.
"At the specialist hospital in Gwagwalada,
instead of treating the skin, they covered it up.
It was when they brought us here (Indian
Hospital) when I was complaining bitterly that
the doctor said they should open it. That was
when they started treating the place I had
bruises. I had my surgical operation some days
ago.
"The doctors and nurses here are wonderful.
This is what I want our doctors and nurses in
Nigerian hospitals to learn. They should be
caring. Human life needs to be taken care of.
When you see somebody in pains, take care of
that person because that person needs you at
that point in time."