If You’re Sick And Taken To Hospital, You’ll Die- Journalist Explains Kano’s Rising Death Numbers

A former Journalist who now works with an agency of the federal government used the opportunity of the lockdown to travel to Kano and see his sick father who eventually passed away six days ago, along with many other residents of the ancient city.

He wished to remain anonymous, but narrated his late father’s struggles and what he saw in Kano hospitals while seeking treatment for his father.

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My dad passed away six days ago. We took him to three different hospitals in Kano when his condition became critical. We first took him to a private hospital. It took the doctor up to four hours to come to the hospital to attend to him. You know most of the operators of private hospitals in Kano are also employed in government hospitals. So until they finish their official duties, patients in their hospitals have to wait, no matter how critical.

The lockdown in Kano has reduced access to medical care. Access to urgent and emergency medical care has drastically reduced in Kano. When the doctor finally came and attended to him, he did tests and prescribed drugs and we came back home.

But he didn’t feel any better so we took him to the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital, which is a government hospital where he could get emergency care. We rushed him to the emergency section because of the lockdown. At the emergency section, more than 40 patients in critical conditions were brought to the hospital within hours while we were there. All were exhibiting similar symptoms and were just lying on the ground. Some looked almost lifeless when they brought them to the hospital.

The doctor wrote drugs for my father and we bought from the hospital pharmacy and came back home. After two days, my father’s condition did not change. So we again rushed him to the Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital, Nasarawa, also a government hospital.

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There, the hospital was also operating from the emergency section because of the lockdown. When we got there we met a crowd of patients and long queue. We saw more patients in critical conditions than at the Murtala Mohammed Hospital and it took ages before you could be attended to..

For you to see a doctor, pay for drugs at the cashier and collect drugs from the hospital you would spend not less than three hours. You can imagine what that means when you have patients that are in very critical conditions.

Within four hours while we were at the hospital, we saw patients dying while waiting for the doctor.And others who’re only hanging on by a thread. There were patients in critical conditions who could not get quick emergency care and would die.

Those who did not die in the hospital may eventually die at home. I saw families of very poor patients who broke into tears because they did not have N5,000 to buy drugs prescribed by the hospital. They would be crying they didn’t have money to pay.

They admitted my father. But he died two hours after admission.

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It is scary the way people are dying in Kano. I believe there are two or three things killing people in Kano.

It don’t think it’s covid-19 that is killing the people, but I am not a doctor. I call on the state government to investigate the deaths. I think if it’s the case of covid-19 the hospitals would not attend to you if they see any sign of covid-19. We’re talking of sick people, people in very critical conditions being brought to the hospital. If its covid-19 the hospital would know and refer you to the isolation centre. Asymptomatic covid-19 patients would look well and normal, but would be carrying the virus. But we’re talking about very sick people who would have easily shown covid-19 symptoms if they had it.

If it is covid-19 the doctors would know. Even the way the hospitals operate, they do social distancing; they allow six patients to enter the room at the same time. And this is a room that could take 20 people at the same time. So the doctors would have identify them if its covid-19 because before patients are allowed in to the hospital, they would take your temperature and look for other symptoms. None was isolated for Covid-19 in the hospitals we visited.

Like my father who died, why would I expose myself to covid-19 by staying with him and carrying him around for treatment? My father had hypertension and diabetes, and that’s what killed him.

If you asked me what is killing people, from what we saw and what the doctors were saying, they are two or three things.

 The first one is the severe heat in Kano which causes meningitis. And when people are rushed to the hospital, they could spend three to four hours without anyone attending to them. So why would they not die. The second is poverty. The third one is the lockdown which has prevented access to urgent medical care.

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There is poverty and lack of access to medical care. That is what is killing people. Between yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday), over 50 persons have died. The government has neglected healthcare.

Even if you have money to treat yourself like my father, because of the lockdown, you have to go to the government hospitals for emergency care. When you go there you don’t get emergency attention.

Also, the state government has not given the people any palliative for the lockdown. It has done nothing for the people. The government did not prioritize the health and wellbeing of the people. 

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