STOP FERRYING DEAD NIGERIANS TO EUROPE ON AIR AMBULANCES

No sick Nigerian who has left Nigeria on four legs (stretcher) has ever returned to Nigeria on two legs (walking). Nigerians, especially the press do not comprehend emergency treatment. A Nigerian politician, dignitary, or socialite has a life-threatening illness such as a stroke, heart attack, vehicular accident, or terminal cancer. The patient is medically mismanaged in Nigeria due to a combination of knowledge and equipment deficiencies. After one week of inappropriate care, the patient is flown overseas.

Newspaper headlines proclaim, “Alhaji Chief Dr Sir Senator Okori Hasuwa, Flown To Germany For Emergency Treatment After Suffering A Stroke.” Nigerian journalists are a special breed. Emergency treatment one week after a massive stroke and on life support? Anyone with a massive stroke or heart attack not receiving appropriate care within the first hour is going to die or become severely incapacitated.
Care within the first hour is emergency care.
Care after the first hour is death prolongation.
Care in Germany, UK, or elsewhere is a waste of money.

Flying a patient on life support with a compromised brain and heart function poses special risks, air ambulance or not.

There is a Zimbabwean joke that President Robert Mugabe could not pee and needed to be flown to Singapore to have a catheter inserted in his pee wee but all the air ambulances were parked in Nigeria where the money and action reside. Some of these patients are flown overseas despite objections by competent Nigerian physicians.

The colossal sums of money wasted on inappropriate overseas care could have built 36 world-class hospitals in Nigeria, one in each state with extra money for maintenance. A network of first responders operating out of these centers of excellence will provide lifesaving care in the first or golden hour ensuring better outcomes for stroke, heart attack, and accident patients. Terminal cancer patients need palliative (comfort) and not “emergency” oversea care.

These are some of the reasons why our cretinic and megalomaniac politicians, celebrities, businesspeople, or business rogues if you prefer, continue to fly their dead bodies for oversea treatment:

1. It is more prestigious to die overseas. Gives the impression that all possible care was provided.
2. There is more fanfare involved in bringing a carcass in an airplane from overseas – airport ceremonies, motorcades, sirens, outriders, crowd of gawkers and church/mosque service.
3. Another flight to the local airport, more of number 2, accompanied by local content such as traditional dancers, masquerades, and more religion.
4. Conspicuous in the funeral program/flyers is, “Alhaji Chief Dr Sir Senator Okori Hasuwa, aged 95 years whose untimely death occurred at Royal Hammersmith Hospital, London after a brief illness.” A 95-year-old man who dies after battling cancer for 5 years died after a brief illness! No mention is made in the program that his corpse was flown to London on vacation. I guess that he needed one more vacation before going underground!
5. Isn’t it appropriate to die in London if you vacation in London?

Africastallestman wants the practice of flying dead bodies overseas as part of the death ritual to stop immediately. More distressing is the fact that the governments are the culprits in most cases.
The money saved should be used to prolong lives in Nigeria and needed medical experts can be flown into Nigeria. They will impart knowledge to local doctors during their consultation, boosting the local quality of care delivery.

Africastallestman doubts that the genetically impaired Nigerian Politicians will do the right thing.