On the manifold faces of death (1)

By Douglas Anele According to Sherwin B. Nuland, author of the illuminating book, How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter, everyone wants to know the details of dying, although few willingly acknowledge that fact. Whether to anticipate the events of our own final illness or be in a position to genuinely understand what is happening to a very sick loved one, or more likely out of our universal instinctive fascination with death, we are existentially concerned with the finality of biological annihilation. Most people view the phenomenon of death with a profound sense of foreboding and dread, a tantalising secret that is as inescapable as it is absolute. Despite various eschatologies that presume survival-beyond-death in one form or another, death is the annihilation of the possibilities of individual human beings. We are as attracted to death as moths are to flames because from experience we know that life and death are structurally interwoven. No matter how one looks at it, the mechanisms of life on earth are intimately connected with inanimate matter, such that a sizeable percentage of researchers in the life sciences believe that life is an epiphenomenon, a by-product or highly organised matter. Nevertheless, the death of someone close to us usually tends to bring to sharp painful awareness the fundamentality of our mortality, because it forces us to remember that we are all in the same existential boat with respect to the brevity of life. The sudden death last Sunday of Dr. Chigbo S. Ekwealo, a colleague in the Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos, reminds me once again the ultimate unpredictability and precariousness of human existence. Accounts of his final moments indicate that he probably suffered a massive heart attack from which he never recovered. For me, the greatest indignity of Ekwealo’s demise was the dehumanising poor attitude of the doctors on duty at the Accident and Emergency unit of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) that fateful night his life was ebbing away. According to the medical doctor who lead a team that brought Ekwealo to the A & E unit for advanced resuscitation procedures, the resident doctors unfeelingly wasted precious time arguing whether or not he had Ebola, instead of rushing him into the Intensive Care facility and trying everything possible to save his life in consonance with the Hippocratic oath. Ekwealo did not receive any treatment whatsoever at LUTH before he was pronounced dead. Now, if Ekwealo, a Senior Lecturer in the university, can be treated with such disgusting indifference by doctors in LUTH, especially when prompt action might have made all the difference, it is not difficult to imagine the worst case scenario for members of the general public taken to the hospital for emergency medical care. In fact, since Ekwealo’s death, I have heard stories of how patients die after waiting in vain for hours for treatment at LUTH, which is supposed to be a teaching hospital, a centre of medical excellence. The pertinent questions to ask at this point are, what kind of human beings are in medical schools these days and what are they learning there? What are the criteria for hiring medical personnel in teaching hospitals across the country? To what extent are medical students exposed to the fundamentals of medical ethics and the requisite psychological dispositions appropriate for taking care of the sick? Are our doctors no longer capable of genuine humane feelings, which serve as psychological foundation for effective medical practice? The major problem with medical practice in Nigeria today is that a significant number of medical students and doctors, including those with high-sounding academic titles and degrees, consider medicine a profession for making money, not a humanitarian vocation for healing the sick. Thus, they lack appropriate humanitarian attitude that motivates genuine caregivers to do their best for patients at any time. For the average Nigerian doctor, a sick person is an opportunity to make money in blissful forgetfulness of the Hippocratic dictum that “where love of mankind is, there is also love of the art of medicine.” Of course, we recognise and commend humane doctors working so hard for their patients in spite of extremely challenging conditions. Yet, leaders of the medical profession must be alive to their responsibilities, strengthen existing codes of conduct, and apply appropriate sanctions whenever necessary to weed out misfits in the profession, irrespective of who their godfathers or sponsors might be. Given the utter irreplaceability of life, medical practice must be for the very best, since mistakes in that field often leads to avoidable death. Going back to the incompetent handling of Ekwealo’s case, I strongly recommend that Prof. Rahamon A. Bello, indefatigable Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, should investigate the matter thoroughly and punish the negligent medical personnel on duty when Ekwealo was brought to the A & E unit. In fact, he should go further by instigating a comprehensive probe of all aspects of LUTH, including recruitment, promotions, finances, procurement of equipment and daily operations. Such auditing could reveal entrenched gross anomalies in the system, which would require drastic action to sanitise the place. As a hard-core Akokite, the reputation of University of Lagos means so much to me that I must speak out against anything that might jeopardise it. More importantly, in the present case life is too precious and irreplaceable for anyone to toy with, whether in LUTH or in any other hospital for that matter. Before the death of Dr. Ekwealo, I was thinking about how to respond to the demise of Prof. Dora Akunyili and Dimgba Igwe, because of my conviction that the death of any influential person is an opportunity to learn useful lessons about life. Prof Akunyili, in my opinion, was one of the greatest public servants to emerge in Nigeria. Her appointment as Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) by former President Olusegun Obasanjo is one of his best decisions as Nigerian leader. Since the death of that remarkable woman, prominent and not-so-prominent Nigerians have heaped fantastic praises on her. Akunyili deserves the accolades and awards she received for her tenacious efforts to eliminate adulterated or substandard drugs and food products from Nigeria. However, one should not take exaggerated praises of deceased persons by prominent Nigerians seriously, because such adulations are hypocritical and hollow. To illustrate: when Gani Fawehinmi died, retired military President, Ibrahim Babangida, and some of his factotums poured encomiums the late lawyer. Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, eulogised his bitterest enemy during the civil war, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, when he learnt that the erstwhile Biafran leader had died. Praises of this kind are empty rituals without genuine emotional significance. As I indicated earlier, Akunyili was a great public servant deserving of great acclaim. Still, why was she unsuccessful in her quest to be governor of Anambra state? What stopped those praising her now from rallying enough support for her senatorial ambition? The point is that highfalutin praises for the dead are oftentimes empty and meaningless pastime by prominent Nigerians to fulfil all righteousness as a form of cultural correctness and “eye service.” Given her sterling performance as a public servant, Akunyili would probably have been a successful governor or senator. But Nigerian politicians in general tend to dislike people of merit, creative imagination and independent mindedness. Therefore, had Dora Akunyili been elected governor or senator, her excellent performance would have exposed the mediocrity of her predecessors by setting a standard superior to what she met when she assumed office. To be continued - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/manifold-faces-death-1/#sthash.WgJjXNXe.dpuf