UNANSWERED CALL
It was noon on Saturday when Christy’s husband, Ibanga rushed her to the hospital. He had found her on the floor of the kitchen writhing in pain. He knew immediately what it was and made a dash for their room to put on his T.shirt, and get his car keys which were on top of the dresser. Ibanga’s wife had been diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer just two days ago; before then they had conducted series of tests, in which she was constantly diagnosed with malaria and placed on malaria medication.
It was her gynecologist who had noted that her symptoms were similar to fibroid and ovarian cyst, and advised her to get a biopsy. when it was revealed that Christy had ovarian cancer, her gynecologist advised that she should meet a specialist as soon as possible to conduct surgery because Christy was at risk of losing her life.
Ibanga got to the hospital with his wife who was moved immediately to the emergency unit by the officials where she waited for the doctor, in order to see the doctor, he was informed that he would have to pay consultation fees to permit the doctor’s administration.
"But I am not new here, my wife conducted some tests in this hospital three days ago." He said.
"What is your wife’s name?" The nurse asked
"Christy Ibanga." he replied
"Where is her card?"
He brought out a small two-page card, the nurse took it and went in search of her file and came back a few minutes later with a long pink file, she opened and studied it for a moment then said "I will send your wife’s file now to the doctor but you still have to pay the consultation fees."
Ibanga then tried to make a transfer for the consultation fees but he could not due to the lack of network service in the hospital, and had to go to the ATM gallery outside the hospital.
When he returned he made the payment and urged the nurse to let his wife see the doctor, immediately the doctor saw her he told him to take her to the national specialist hospital for a surgery.
At one pm, Ibanga got to the National Specialist Hospital with his wife who was immediately enrolled in the emergency unit, while he was ask to wait at the reception and pay for bed space, treatment/surgical utensils, surgical fees, and registration fees, he paid for everything after which he pleaded with them to proceed with the surgery, his wife was given a number as there were other patients in need of surgery who had arrived at the hospital earlier.
Ibanga waited for his turn by looking after his wife. However, his wife’s surgery was shifted to the next day, and so he had to take care of his wife by changing her pads which she wore to pacify the bleeding and giving her a towel baths, she could barely eat the food he bought for her. This made him scared and sad, he did not want to lose his wife, he desperately prayed in his heart that he would not lose her.
The next day came but the surgery did not happen, the surgeon in charge had called in to say he had a pressing matter to attend to and his deputy was on leave, Ibanga was furious what matter could be so urgent than the life of his dying wife, he pleaded with the nurses to at least call the deputy surgeon to come to aid, but all his pleading and yelling fell on deaf ears as the nurses ignored him and continued with their tasks.
Ibanga went back to his wife’s room and watched her struggle for her breath while he searched for alternative hospitals that perform a surgical operation, he called his family who advised him to fly her abroad and promised to provide financial help, but it was too late to make such decision, he prayed that his wife holds on to her life so the surgery could be performed even though he had this gut feeling she would not survive.
Ibanga watched his wife struggle for her life while sitting on a stool beside her bed, he put his head on the bed and begged her to stay alive.
At midnight he woke up to hear a long beep sound from the monitor, he immediately went to call the doctor who came and check her vitals and confirmed she was dead, ibanga watched his wife being rolled out of the room while he sat in the floor rubbing his head, he wondered if things could have happened differently, if his wife’s sickness was diagnosed early, if he would have still had to sit on the floor and rub his head. While searching for his lawyers contact on his phone, he mentally made a list of all the hospitals and laboratories he was going to sue.
