By Stephen Obidike
The weather was mild with a cool fresh breeze that reminded you of cool refreshing air in the African village. I just finished a very busy shift at the local hospital near my house and was going to walk home. As I looked up, In the distance, my colleague who just came back from holidays was walking briskly towards me. He was gesticulating and mouthing, “how far?,” the typical Pidgin English greeting in Nigeria. We exchanged handshakes and a very brief side hug while I asked him about his trip. He looked ecstatic, grinning from ear to ear with the memories that flooded his mind. He couldn’t hold it any longer as he blurted out “Naija dey sweet ooo,” making a face to suggest I should go as well.
I can relate to his feelings as I have had similar emotions after travelling to Nigeria on holidays.
However, he suddenly stopped, and his face went sullen. He looked at me intently and said, “have you heard the news about little, oh sorry Junior Pope?,” as he quickly corrected himself. I said yes with a sad note to it. “Very unfortunate mishap isn’t it,” I remarked. Yes, very unfortunate he retorted at the same time opening his red sports utility vehicle.
I stopped, waiting for him to mount his car and drive off, waving goodbye in the process. I turned left heading towards the pedestrian bridge that led to my house. The soft evening breeze caressed my face as my thoughts quickly went to the story of the boat accident trying to piece them together. Social media is awash with several video clips and updates on the events following the incident. At this point it was easy to piece together.
A part of a film production crew was travelling on a motorised boat across the Niger River. The boat was meant to carry maximum of six passengers but for some reason there were fifteen passengers on the boat. A very popular Nigerian actor who was one of the passengers was trying to make a social media live post, the captain of the boat who also had ear pods in both ears and was speeding was also trying to poke his head into the live video post been made by the popular actor. With all this distraction, he could not completely avoid a smaller canoe that came across their path. Their boat clipped the side of the canoe and capsized, emptying its contents into the belly of the river.
Shuddering at the thought of people drowning, I looked up and realised that I was almost getting to the foot of the pedestrian bridge. From there I had about three and half kilometre to my house. I could not be bothered as the cool breeze made me think the forty-five minutes’ walk was a very short time to spend outside in such weather.
I quickly thought of the drowning passengers again and remembered another bit of the story, only two passengers were wearing life jacket. I was jolted out of my thoughts as a young boy on bicycle quickly crossed my path. I looked up in his direction. He was oblivious of what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped abruptly. He had his nose up in the fresh wind as if he wanted to suck it all into his lungs but alas, he was wearing protective gear; a helmet and paddings on his elbow and knees. I hissed under my breath wondering why the movie crew were travelling without life jackets across a deep river they knew had no costal lifeguards.
As I put my foot on the bottom of the pedestrian bridge, I remembered the clip from social media of two victims that were recovered from the river and were laid on the ground and surrounded by bystanders. All of them were staring at the victims that lay seemingly lifeless. Another social media post was of a commentator who had said the victims were taken by bystanders to a local mortuary where the mortician advised them to take one of the victims to the hospital as he seems to be alive. A young man in a different clip confirmed that bit of the story and confidently said that he was among the people that took the victim to a ritualist to perform some rituals first before taking him to the hospital for Oxygen. They were taken to the hospital as last resort where he was reported to have given up the ghost. The thought gave me the shivers.
I was on the middle of the foot bridge now; the cool wind was very intense. I felt like standing there for a few more minutes to take it all in but I know the weather can suddenly change so I had to get home as soon as possible. I painfully thought of the story that had just gone through my head and I thought of the various stages where this mishap would have been averted or the consequences ameliorated. I thought of the issue of overcrowding of the boat, the impact of speeding and not paying attention while driving. The fact that thirteen out of fifteen of the passengers were not wearing life jacket.
I was on the other side of the foot bridge now and the intensity of the wind has subsided a bit. My thoughts went to the bystanders. They were a lot of them in the clip I watched and all they did was to really stand by and watch the victims. I have heard of bystanders given resuscitation to people who are unwell and look dead. I know most people around me call it bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
This is a simple technique where an unwell person who cannot be easily aroused by tapping and shouting at him is helped by the bystander. The bystander who discovers this person should first call for help if there’s nobody around. Then quickly check if the victim is breathing by putting your face close to the nose to feel for breath on their face while looking for the type of up and down movement of the chest you have when you breath. At the same time check if the heart is beating by feeling for a pulse. An easy pulse is gotten on the outer part of the inner wrist where you find the pulse known as the Radial pulse. If the person is not breathing, quickly check the mouth and nose to make sure nothing is blocking the breath pathway. If the breath pathway is not clear, remove any debris or materials that may be blocking the mouth and nose. You can also pinch the lower parts of the jaw and lifting it up to help bring the tongue off the back of the throat. If all these do not help the person start breathing again, you then help the victim breath by covering their mouths with your mouth and blowing air into their mouths twice. If the person has no pulse when you checked, it means the heart is either not beating well or not beating at all. You must help the victims heart by placing your two hands over one another, interlacing your fingers and placing the heel of the lower hand on the centre of the victim’s breastbone. Compress the breastbone straight downwards about five centimetres, trying as much as possible to keep your elbows straight. Allow for the compressed chest to come back to its former position then do it again. You should try and do the compression cycle as fast as twice every second. After doing it thirty times you breath into the victim’s mouth twice again.
While you are doing this someone should quickly arrange a transport preferably an ambulance to take the victim to a nearby hospital. If at any point you notice the victim is breathing by himself, trying to move, coughing, talk or resisting what you are doing, stop the compressions and check him all over again. This is bystander CPR.
The breeze was now getting a bit colder, and I thought I felt a faint drizzle on my forehead. I knew it was time to quicken my steps. My thoughts were still with the boat incident and all the time wasted before taking the victims to the hospital, what could have been achieved in that time. It dawned on me that the bystanders were not aware of bystander CPR. I wondered again how we can easily educate the mases. I know people love Nollywood movies in Nigeria. What if Nollywood and the regulators of Nollywood movies stop churning out movies that buttress money rituals, get rich quick stories, unrealistic miracles and start adding educative pieces like our true history, bystander CPR, ways of saving a chocking person and other forms of life or limb saving procedures in their stories, the masses will gradually internalise these things overtime.
The drizzle was beginning to get heavier, and I was nearly running at this stage, but I said to myself; it might be worthwhile writing a letter to the head of the Actors Guild of Nigeria to draw their attention to the role they can play if they can impress on their script writers and movie directors to include this basic lifesaving knowledge in their movie scripts. I was very close to my door now, but a fleeting thought went through my head. What if I do a little story on this boat mishap reflecting on how the Bystander emergency treatment the victims received was another boat mishap on its own. Yes, I thought, it might be worthwhile. I will give it the title, Bystander emergency treatment in Nigeria and another boat mishap. I snapped out of the thought as I ran into the house.
Dr Stephen Onyebuchi Obidike is an Emergency Physician. He writes from the UK.
