THIS WAS A STORY I LEARNT FROM. (STORY THAT TOUCHED 2)

If you missed part one, CLICK HERE

Let me organise some facts in this blog post.

In part one, I explained that:

1)I went to the hospital, the first time on Saturday night.. was asked to come back the next day. I asked the doctor how he was and he said “not fine” as explained in the first post. The reason I suspect he was not fine was explained in part Part one.

2)I came on Sunday evening and the doctor was in a great mood.I asked the doctor how he was and he said “Fine” with a broad smile on his face. So, I went to do the tests he prescribed and was asked to come back for my results.

3)I went home and came back in some hours time and the atmosphere was different. There was a man(SLEEEPING MAN) lying down on a bed inside and more people than normal in the hallway and reception area, so the doctor was too busy to see me.

NOW LET US GO ON WITH OUR STORY.

In case you missed part one, Click HERE.

“Please, I am no medical practitioner or nurse, but I knew something was off about him. What I did not like however was that nobody was paying attention to him. He looked like he was sleeping his pain away, so I decided to mind my business. I rested my head on the chest of the person I came with and wondered in my head when the doctor would attend to me. “

Just then, another patient walked in with blood dripping from his leg,actually scratch that, the blood was not dripping, the blood was pouring from his legs, such that his foot prints marked red on the floor as he walked despite the fact that he had boots on, implying that the boots had been covered in blood. (Let us call this patient “bleeding man“)

I don’t remember seeing that much blood ever in my entire human existence. Okay… maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but he was bleeding and blood marked the floor red as he walked. I tapped the handsome young man I was resting on and said “Please, can we leave?? ”

He said ” Calm down, Dunmo. It’s just blood. The doctor would soon attend to you. ”

I closed my eyes as bleeding man walked past me into the room, the doctor was in. Another man (Let me refer to him as man 1) walked in and asked him if he had money on him to pay for a private card as he was not under NHIS (NATIONAL HEALH INSURANCE SCHEME).

Bleeding man could not respond. He could barely talk, but the rule was that he would not be attended to except he had a card with his details whether NHIS or private. At this point, the view I had where I was sitting only covered the man on the bed and the healthy man asking questions.

The bloody prints on the floor were not what I wanted to see. So I reattempted to leave the hospital,so I said “Let me go and wait in the car.. “…. but Ayo(the handsome young man, I came with ) just told me ” Calm down, Dunmo. It’s just blood. Pele. We would soon leave. ”

Like I said, it’s nice to have people that care in moments like this. I decided to be obedient and being stubborn was not going to help me, so I tried to move my attention to somewhere else and wondered where the cleaners I saw everytime I came to the hospital were now that there was blood in my face.

It however occurred to me that the time was past 9pm, so they were lesser in number and most probably unaware. I just coped. The questioning going inside the room continued.

“Do you have up to 800 naira on you. That is the card fee? ” Man 1 asked again.

Bleeding man did not respond. It sounded like he was talking, but the sounds were not coherent. He was still sitting. A nurse walked in and told him to take off his shoes. They were drenched in blood. In my mind I’m thinking “Respond now, so they know how to help you. ”

Another man (let me refer to him as man 2) came in and said “The people who brought you here have gone. They said it was an accident and they just assisted you. The other man involved in the accident is outside. Unscathed.They said you were drunk. ”

I could not smell him neither did I see his face, but It seemed plausible that he was drunk because even though I had originally assumed his injuries had made him less agile and slow, his drunken state may have complicated things more.

The other man involved indeed came into the room(let us call him “Other man”). He started by saying “Mo dupe lowo olohun. Pe ko si n kan kan to se mi” meaning “I thank God nothing happened to me”.

He continued in pidgin* “I just dey go my own when den speed come my side, na so this thing happen” meaning “I was on my own when they sped and their car ran into me. ”

Man 2 facing bleeding man angrily, said ” This is rubbish, I don’t know how you would drink and drive. He hissed and continued in a rant which I can’t quite remember at the moment, but it was majorly about their drunk driving had landed them into trouble, then he walked out.

In all this, the doctor who was not visible to me from the view I had through the doorway was silent and most probably busy writing…He was definitely not going to attend to me anytime soon. Besides, I was feeling better, it was my mum that insisted that I run tests to be certain.

Other man just came back in once in a while. The situation was awkward. Man 1 walked into the room and said “I am just trying to help you. You need to talk so you get treated. ” At this point, I was beginning to think that Man 1 was part of the hospital attendants just going the extra mile. He repeated himself again. “Do you have money on you? “

The next words that came out of his mouth scarred me further and affirmed my decision to leave the hospital because I discovered watching a bleeding man was better than the next thing I heard.

He said:

To be continued.