Fate Of Our Health

A healthy person is one that is in a complete state of physical and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease.
Our health is determined by a lot of things; physical, emotional, financial, environmental, mental, and a lot of other factors

Approximately two-thirds of my country’s population (Nigeria) live under the poverty line; these means that over 100 million people live in absolute poverty, and surviving on less than one dollar a day.
Presently I work and practice in one of the rural areas here in Nigeria and people who live here, find it difficult to access the health care facility here because of lack of funds to pay for the services.
The fate of the health of this people are presently in a deteriorating condition

REASONS:

ACCESSIBILITY

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The people here find it difficult to access the health services render because of poor roads, in a situation where they have to present to the hospital in the case of an emergency, delay of course, is always inevitable as getting a means of transport to the facility takes a long time; motorbikes, tricycle, and cars (for those that can afford it) are the means of transportation here.
At the end of the day presentation to the health facility is already late on arrival.

AVAILABILITY

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Health services are not readily available in this part of the country and for those areas where health centers are built doctors find it difficult to accept working there because it's a rural area and most doctors Don't like working in rural settings because of the challenges they will have to deal with. And this makes the availability of health services reduced, not forgetting to mention the government also being part of the problem.

AFFORDABILITY

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Another factor affecting the fate of the health of individuals in this region is that; they find it difficult to afford health services hence they tend to dismiss the usage and resort to herbal medications instead; as it is cheaper and easy to afford.

ACCEPTABILITY

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This is one major factor that affects patients here, because of the belief they have already in herbal medications, they find it difficult to accept that health care services are good.They will prefer to give birth to their children in the care of local traditional birth attendants instead of coming to the hospital.
So in totality, poverty can be a major source of illness and also lead to lack of access to the healthcare that matters for that individual. Even affording good food is a major challenge.

Take a scenario that happened yesterday in the facility where I am practicing;

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We had to do a cesarean section in a woman with abruptio placenta (premature separation of the placenta in utero) with a Live Fetus, the woman's PCV ( volume of blood that is cell) was 15% (Normal >35%). Having transfused 2 units of blood pre-operatively, we started the surgery with extra 2 units waiting. She then developed DIC intraoperatively, owing to the massive retroplacental clots (consumptive coagulopathy) So we needed more blood to transfuse, we told one of the nurses to rush out to tell all the relatives and church members that have been praying outside to start donating fresh blood for their patient. No one agreed to, and getting fresh whole blood as at that time of the day from the Laboratory won't be possible.
Luckily, after much plea and explanations, someone finally agreed to donate the blood to the patient.
The patient and her neonate are both presently in good condition.

These are some of the little health care problems we face.

The fate of our health is presently in our hands, to change as much as we can change even though there is very little we can change.

Practicing medicine here, has been a roller coaster ride I would say with lots of emotional upheavals. Everyday i wake up to reality and see that there is very little that I can change at present. But I am determined to save as many lives as I can despite their low economic conditions.
I manage all my patients without discrimination, I do abide by my Hippocratic oath.

For me, I strive to give as much help to those that I can help and to create awareness about the importance of utilizing the health facility here, instead of resulting in herbal medication
Thanks to the steemit community where like minds abide and where my hopes of giving aid can be fulfilled.

Like I said in my last post;

Combining steemit and work:
Being a steemian is great, I am so happy to be a part of this great platform. Combining steemit and work presently, is a great thing for me, because I can now strive to make some extra income to assist me in helping those patients in need, so they dont lose their lives because they couldn't afford the health system.
In the nearest future, I hope to be able to build up a charity foundation (which i have started in my own little way) and create awareness on the poor utility of health services in this environment all due to financial constraint.

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Lastly, thanks to all those who have my early journey here on steemit worthwhile.I cant end this write up without appreciating @hitmeasap who gave me a 100SP delegation as a way of paying it forward and made me a part of the @asapers. Thanks to @asapers for curating my last post Thanks to @ sander-lacerda, @ocd, @demotruk (who delegated 5SP to me) and all other members of the @asapers team.

UP STEEMIT!!! UP KINDNESS IN THE MEDICAL PRACTICE

Thanks for reading!!!