MY Days in Hospital over Sudden Spine Injury in Kano

By Saleh Bature

Sallah Day is a special day for Muslims. It is a day that marks the end of the annual one-month-long Ramadan Fasting for Muslims. It is a day for celebration, a special moment to spread love and a time to reunite with family and friends.

I woke up on this fateful day with a sense of fulfilment for completing a month-long fasting, and gratitude to the Almighty Allah for sparing my life to observe one of the compulsory acts of worship in Islam. Little did I know that the the excitement and happiness would be short-lived.

As I attempted to stand up and enter the bathroom to take bath for the Eid prayer, I felt severe pain radiating from my left hip bone down to the lower limbs. I could not stand on my left foot because of the radiating pain, irritation and uncomfortable numbness. I could neither sit, walk, or rest on my left side. The pain was unbearable. I never felt a pain like that in my life.

Due to the disorientation caused by the pain, i could not focus my attention. I was only mumbling, incoherent, and agitated. Nothing could assuage these feelings and utter hopelessness.

The thought of seeing a doctor to relieve me from the severe pain dawned on me. My nephew drove me to Prime Specialist Hospital, located at Lamido crescent, in Kano. That 35 minutes drive to the hospital appeared to me like a thousand mile trip. After the routine opening of patient’s folder and consultation amids agonizing pain, a hospital attendant took me to observation room where the doctor attended to me. That was the beginning of my 11 days on sick bed in the most harrowing experience at the hospital.

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I was so nervous and felt like my heart had jumped up into another part of my body due to the apprehension that spine surgery was the best alternative to my problem. It is a common knowledge that the Spine is a delicate part of the body which should be treated with utmost care. I was scary because the risk of injuring the spinal cord or the nerves during the operation may lead to paralysis and permanent disability.

At the beginning, not even the counselling by Dr. Musa Ibrahim and Dr. Hassan at the hospital could allay my fears about the risk of the surgery. I went to the hospital as an ordinary Nigerian, stuck in the typical Nigerian mindset that doctors in private hospitals in our country are more concerned about profit. Even though Nigerians have this mistrust and suspicion about private hospitals in the country, my experience with the management of Prime Specialist hospital proof to the contrary. There’s nothing wrong with a private hospital to make a reasonable profit from their services. What is wrong and immoral is for doctors to defraud patients. There are indeed instances where private hospitals swindle patients in our hospitals.

What allayed my fears and convinced me that the doctors at the hospital can do a successful spine surgery was the testimonial I got from people who had undergone surgery at the hospital. There is no better testimonial than to hear it from the persons who underwent surgery at the hospital.

I was able to summon the courage to agree to the surgery because of Dr Musa’s professional counselling, the testimonial from the people i know, and, above all; the belief that the “outcome of all affairs is determined by Allah’s decree.

I had a premonition that one of these three things might happen after the surgery: Firstly, I would be able to bounce back stronger which I hoped and prayed for. Secondly, the operation might not be successful, a situation which may confine me to a wheelchair or be bedridden for the rest of my life. Thirdly, the worst case scenario which is death might happen. As the hospital attendant pushed me in a wheelchair to the theatre room, I prayed to Allah to give me the courage to accept whatever the outcome of the surgery as my qadar (decree of Allah which determines all eventualities).

As I reevaluate my sojourn at Prime Specialist Hospital, I learnt that there are good lessons to learn even from a bitter experience in life. I got to understand that there is no shortcut to recovery after spine surgery. The best and easiest way is to heed the advice of the doctors, do physiotherapy and pray to Allah for a speedy recovery.

I had one of the best times in my life during my stay at the hospital. I got the opportunity to strenghthen my connection with my creator. The anticipatory anxiety around the surgery increased my faith in God. Good health, a thing which most of us take for granted is the best blessing our creator bestows on us.

The experience and clinical expertise of the team of doctors at Prime Specialist Hospital are commendable. It is gratifying that one gets the best value for his money from the services offered in the hospital. Importantly, Nigerians can save a lot from huge spending on medical tourism abroad if we had patriotic specialist doctors in different fields of medicine and surgery in hospitals with the right equipment in the country.

I have no enough words to express my gratitude to the people that assisted me or sent messages of goodwill and those who prayed for my recovery or visited me in the hospital and at home to greet me. I feel the impact of your prayers every day as I get better, little by little in quick succession. I pray to Allah, He who bestows all bounties to reward you.

Saleh Ibrahim Bature is the Director of Human Resource Management at the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) Abuja.