Nigerian doctor shares heartbreaking story of the length she and her colleagues are forced to go to save lives with inadequate medical facilities

A medical doctor has told of the length she and her colleagues have gone to save patients’ lives without available medical equipment.

She blamed the lack of facilities on the government and says it’s the reason why she’s highly critical of them when it comes to healthcare.

She went on to break down how money budgeted for projects such as revamping NTA, Aso Villa Clinic, and the money lawmakers want to use to revamp a building could have been better put to use to provide adequate medical equipment.

She tweeted: “Someone asked why I’m always so critical of the govt when it comes to healthcare. I will tell u. During NYSC, I & a colleague had to construct an improvised bubble CPAP machine using plaster & Eva water bottle to save a preterm infant with RDS. The baby died 48 hours later.

“Do u knw y she died? We ran out of oxygen & there was nothing we cud do. Countless times, we had to fashion incubators from indomie cartons while the parents prayed to God that PHCN kept the lights on cos the only source of heat was from light bulbs dangling above these cartons.

“A lot of these babies later became statistics for Nigeria’s infant mortality. But Lawmakers want to use N37billion to renovate a building. The same govt wants $500million to revamp NTA. In a space of 3 years, the govt budgeted 5.2 billion Naira for Aso villa clinic alone.

“let me tell u what N5.2billion can do. It can purchase over 1500 incubators. It can purchase over 2000 CPAP machines. It can purchase over 400 ventilators. So please don’t ask me why I’m always angry. A better question is why are u not.

“If u’ve ever watched a child with RDS die, u’ll understand. They make this grunting sound cos they’re trying to generate enough air pressure to keep their lungs open. With each breath, it gets worse, sometimes it feels like they have a hole in their windpipes. It’s haunting.”