“Hellish 13hrs. Man!” This was one of the many ways poet Adedayo Agarau described his frustration-laden search to get snake antivenom in Ibadan, Oyo State, for someone who needed urgent help on Friday.
Agarau recorded some parts of his struggle in a series of posts on his X page between 2:25 am and 2:27 pm.
His first post revealed that the medicine was not available at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, one of the top government hospitals in Nigeria.
“UCH does not have snake anti-venom. Adeoyo State Hospital does not have snake anti-venom. Nigeria is so [expletive],” Agarau wrote.
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My friends and I napped in the car, waiting for Kunle Ara to open. When we got back, the families of a patient were in tears. Their son is dead. To put more context, when we got to UCH (again), we had to buy gloves for the doctors and nurses before they could start treatment. https://t.co/7Ryt8NLSnj— Adedayo Agarau (@adedayo_agarau) December 27, 2024
According to his follow-up post at 3:54 am, the poet and his friends had gone to about 13 hospitals in Ibadan, yet none had the antivenom.
Having visited several places with no luck, he made another post just six minutes later, asking if anyone knew of a hospital in Ibadan that had snake antivenom. “We have been everywhere. Phew!” he exclaimed.
Agarau also shared how he and his friends were forced to wait in terrible conditions just to get care for the person who needed to be stabilised.
“Nigerian institutions need serious intervention,” he wrote in one post.
“This morning has been hellish. We are all huddling outside the emergency ward at UCH. No light. No antidote. Families of other patients are sleeping on the iron benches. A woman is hissing. Hope is all we have.”
One of the things that compounded the situation was how he and others had to wait outside for hours with little hope of getting medical attention.
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Agarau eventually found the antivenom in Kunle Ara, a pharmacy not far away from UCH Ibadan.
“My friends and I napped in the car, waiting for Kunle Ara to open,” Agarau continued.
“When we got back, the families of a patient were in tears. Their son is dead.
“To put more context, when we got to UCH (again), we had to buy gloves for the doctors and nurses before they could start treatment.”
As his frustration continued to build, he posted at 7:51 am: “We just got back from Kunle Ara. We are heading back for administration. Private o, public o. Overhaul every damn thing.
“I can’t begin to describe the hell we’ve faced this morning searching for care (even as people who can afford it — now think of the many people outside, with no other option).”
By 8:07 am, he wrote, “Seems we will have to wait till the world ends before they take this prescription from us and administer it.”
There was some hint of good news in his subsequent post at 11:44 am. He noted that the friend had responded to treatment and the doctors were preparing him for discharge.
His next posts compared the care he received as a child in the 90s with the current state of the healthcare system in Nigeria.
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“As a sick child, I’m thankful for all the care they provided at St Mary’s Catholic Hospital Eleta in the 90s,” Agarau wrote on Friday.
“I can’t speak for the state of healthcare in Nigeria today. No one cares about anything. No one.
“Whatever they said about the multifaceted situations in Nigeria is worse. The communal grief in the waiting station outside the emergency department is heavy. You will cry. And the tears will be ugly. Look at mothers throwing themselves to the ground. Just look.”
The poet also expressed his anger at a particular doctor in the emergency unit at UCH whom he described as “the devil’s incarnate”.
“Disrespectful, proud, elitist and causally stupid. Nothing justifies the horrendous ‘treatment’ that patients get at that emergency unit. The disregard for human life is jarring,” he added.
The post ‘Hellish 13 Hours’ — A Nigerian Poet’s Frustrating Search for Snake Antivenom in Ibadan Hospitals appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.