You may not know this, but, next time you are
with a white doctor be on the look-out. Next time you are on medical tourism or
you find yourself, a Nigerian in a foreign hospital, be sure you are treated by
doctors (not witch doctors who swore to the Hippocratic Oaths but are vampires
in lab coats, armed with bizarre syringes).
Do not
judge them by the colour of their skins or based on the age-old belief that
doctors are meant to save human lives. The story of Julie Osamede Ihdeyen
changed my mind about the milk of human kindness flowing in the veins of the
‘white’ doctor. So rivetingly repulsive is Julie’s story that where she comes
from or the circumstances of her birth or sojourn matter far less. It is bound
to bring tears to the eyes of any one. No one will shrug at this man’s
inhumanity to a woman – only felons.
The story
I am about to narrate came to public knowledge last November on the popular
radio show of Love FM 104.5, Brekete, anchored by rights activist and
broadcasting dynamo, Ordinary Ahmed Isa. The tale has been authenticated by
several persons, including the chairperson of the House of Representatives
Committee on the Diaspora, Barr. Rita Orji.
As the
narration goes, Citizen Julie’s existence became a nightmare the day she
stepped into Amideos Avoya Hospital. The manifestation of malaria was first
spotted, then urinary tract infection was diagnosed. By the time Julie was
dispatched to Sejuale Hospital in Torino, Italy, her life had permanently
become miserable.
While one
might have no sympathy for unscrupulous individuals who sell off their organs
for money in Asia and parts of North America, Julie’s case defies any such
pecuniary considerations.
Some
demented medics, rather than treat the infections diagnosed, sought if she was
accompanied by anybody. Without preparing her mind or getting any next-of-kin’s
consent, she was wheeled into the theatre, injected with unknown drugs,
criminally tied up and had her kidney ‘stolen’ from her, through lacerations at
the back! She lost her spinal cord and has been paralysed since then.
For
weeks, running into months, she was abandoned to the various elements. Unknown
to her, the same team came to inflict further damage on her health and psyche
two months later. This time, they came, pinned her stomach-down, forcefully cut
open her buttocks stretching close to her genitalia. They poured alcohol on the
cut, strapped a belt around her arm to monitor her breathing and she ended up
suffering memory loss.
Now, life
is nasty, miserable and empty for the 30-something-year-old. Her situation is
aggravated by indigestion, a cut torso, restlessness and other medical
challenges. Placed on a medication of 32 tablets (16 in the morning, 9 in the
afternoon and 7 in the evening), little did she know that all these hospitals
worked in tandem and have been feeding her drugs meant for the retarded in a
bid to numb her to the point of death.
The
inhuman medics turned around to dub her ‘mentally ill’. Authentic reports have
put a lie to the evil designs of her assailants, as a court confirmed her
sanity and indicted the medical team (one doctor and two aides) that
perpetrated the heinous act, in the first instance. Sadly, both Nigerian and
Italian authorities have done nothing. For compensation, the embassy renewed
her papers free of charge and she was nationalised. They also returned her
seized documents and medical reports in 2013.
Curiously,
the report ignored the fact that her kidney was stolen and that she suffers
paralysis due to the ordeal she endured in the hands of these medical brigands.
Worse, the document bears her forged signature.
It is sad
that this is happening to a human being. Were the victim to be an Italian, another
Europe or American, the human rights world would have been shrilling with
condemnation and calls for compensation. For Nigeria, it is a further reminder
that her citizens don’t matter. Otherwise, the Italian government or its
viceroy here should have been made to account for Citizen Julie’s ordeals.
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