Health education with creativity

Thoughts about a third world teaching hospital ‘Give people what they need: food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure. Don't ask who deserves it. Every human being deserves it.’-Zinn Medical school was bad enough. It ripped my academic genius image of myself off the wall of my mind. It stripped me naked of my self esteem leaving me with  the first three items on marslow’s theory of needs ,food ,shelter and security. Security which I barely had in a school where students frequently suffered  at the merciless hands of thieves and robbers. I barely survived. My daily prayer was to get 50% in every exam, pass the final exam and run away in one piece. I did get away in one piece but I did not have peace afterwards.  I started working in  a teaching hospital  few months after passing my final exam. On the first day I was sent to the emergency department . As soon as I...

The day the computer killed a baby. I was knocked down by a motorcycle that morning as I crossed the main road in front of the hospital to enter the premises. I hit my head on the asphalt road and lost consciousness briefly. When I came to, the motorcycle driver had fled and I was surrounded by some nurses who were also coming to work.They sent me to the emergency unit where the medical officer on duty took a look at me . I had sustained minor abrasions and cuts on my arms and face. I also had a small scalp  swelling and my vision  felt blurred, I attributed that to the cracks in my glasses .They had flown off and  hit the road  when the motorcycle sent me flying. In the end I had to do a CT scan since I had head trauma. I didn’t have the money to pay but since I was a house officer I thought the radiology department will help me out .They did not. They demanded cold hard cash. Hence I was unable to do the scan. I was on duty that morning for pediatric emerg...

Social media; A tool for democratizing health ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’- Benjamin Franklin. I was overcome with extreme gloom and great melancholy that fateful morning. A distraught mother rushed her 17yr old daughter into the ER (emergency  room) screaming for help.The girl was extremely pale and her breathing was labored. Her conjunctiva was so yellow that I picked up the jaundice from a mile away. She had been told by a neighbor that drinking a mixture of akpeteshie and camphor would cure her chicken pox in a matter of hours with no scarring from the rash. She had tried the magic potion and the results was the reason why she was in the ER Her liver was failing , she was hemolysing. We had to quickly intervene with a blood transfusion and some liver protective treatments to prevent her untimely demise. She survived but she had other problems; she could not pay her hospital bills. Her parents had no money for that.The management for ch...

POLARITY REVERSAL . I think my parents got it wrong because they were unlearned From childhood I was whipped and starved Just to teach me that right was good and must be preserved But I grew up to find out that I had been wronged For the the real world had its polarity reversed Right was wrong and wrong was right Good was evil and evil was good The innocent was guilty of innocence The criminal was innocent of his crimes The selfless were deemed foolish And the selfish were heroes Blinded by folly I chose the wrong side I wanted good and right to be the ones to preside Good always triumphs or so I thought From battle to battle I lost every fight Until I was on the verge of committing suicide And so I went on my knees and prayed God I have chosen wrongly , I said Nice guys finish last, I cried The response was straight forward and liberating ‘Yours is a different race my son’ E.Y.

I TRY When I wanted to be the best student in school I tried When I wanted to learn how to play the piano I tried When I wanted to learn how to drive I tried When I wanted to be the greatest doctor I tried When I wanted to start my own business I tried When I wanted to get the lady I loved I tried And when I wanted a loving and caring family I tried to build one In all these I tried with all my strength but I failed to achieve every single one of them Failure dogged every step I took, and  success too I can learn anything due to eidetic memory and  rote So I passed every exam I ever wrote I established my own hospital  now I work in an environment that is comfortable Experiencing failure and success together  has taught  me how to be  wiser and stronger Together they are yin and yang Ups and downs Valleys and hills One is there because the other exists And you c...

Rewrite the stars A million dreams are keeping me awake My future is at stake And i feel like having big dreams is a mistake For all i hear around me is the hissing of snakes Saying...'no one can rewrite the stars' Polluting the last drops of my dwindling hope with their venom But no one needs to remind me that doom is written in my stars No one needs to hiss in my ear that failure is my destiny's scars For i have read that book called 'My Stars' A pencil was used to make all the marks And I'm equipped with the eraser of  determination I will erase doom and failure into extinction But even if the markings were indelible ink All i would do was buy a new book One that has blank pages And just rewrite 'My Stars' E.Y.

Indecision I define it as the inability to make a decision In spite of having many propositions It is so frustrating As you watch time and opportunity fly past in your confusion And though you may pray for direction The gloom gets gloomier Dashing every shred of hope and faith in your heart into extinction It is like going round in circles and electrocution Despite moving a lot you don't change your position I don't wish this situation even for my worst opposition For watching on helplessly As you lose time and opportunity Is the most crippling infirmity. E.Y.