A miracle!

I was walking along the row of patients waiting to see the doctor yesterday and one lady called out excitedly to me. I looked at her smiled and greeted her but her face did not ring a bell. A few minutes later, a nurse walked up to me with the same woman and said Doctor this is Mrs XYZ. I looked at her in utter amazement, she looked nothing like the patient she had been a few weeks ago!

What was so amazing about her? She had been a patient in our intensive care unit just a few weeks ago. She had Tetanus! If you look up the care of patients with tetanus in any medical textbook written by anyone in a developed country, it is most likely that you will find nothing on the subject, if you do you wont find the information you need. Tetanus is no longer seen in such settings. On the other hand in Nigeria, tetanus cases are still prevalent.

As a house officer during my shift working in the neonatal intensive care unit, I had as many as four babies on admission at a time during a period of two weeks. They survived which was a miracle seeing how bad they were. This Lady is the second patient I have seen survive tetanus. The first was also during my housejob, he was a young man of about 25years and he had a wound on his leg which was not properly cleaned and of course he did not get any vaccine for tetanus or the immunoglobulin. After he had been discharged, on his first clinic visit I did not recognise him too.

Tetanus is preventable and all it takes is o get the vaccines which cost a minimum of 50naira and a maximum of 250naira depending on where you receive it. The young mans relations poured into our hospital daily to receive the vaccine after they saw how tormented he was.

Tetanus causes painful spasms of all muscle groups,It is not called Lockjaw for nothing. Facial spasms give the patient a look called the devils grimace (rhisus sardonicus). It is extremely painful. The patient needs to be nursed in a dark, quiet environment, physical contact is limited to the barest minimum as even a soft pat or whisper can set off spasms. It can cause death by spasms of respiratory muscles cutting off the oxygen supply of the patient.

All in all its preventable, so if you have never had a complete dose of the tetanus toxoid please go ahead and start, you never know how it may save your life. This piece is dedicated to Mrs XYZ who survived despite the odds!

Comments

  1. SOLOMONSYDELLE9:10 AM

    Thank you for this story. It touches my heart and i pray for medical officers in Nigeria who work tirelessly to care for the people under their charge. I think you should know about the Nigerian Health Watch. It is an incredible blog and I am sure the guys there could partner with you on educating our people about health. They are wonderful and very informative.

    Also, please swing by my site "NIGERIAN CURIOSITY whenever you can and become a part of the family.

    God bless and happy Nigerian Proclamation Day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. rethots11:16 AM

    ...simple, yet profound. No wonder, it is said; My people die for lack of knowledge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Daisy2:09 AM

    Are penicillins still the preferred treatment of choice? Dogs and cats very rarely get tetanus but horses do and I want to say they are treated with PenG and lots of supportive care

    ReplyDelete

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