Ten-year-old Bejima Dauda, a student, recently suffered third degree burns quantified at 70 per cent, from an inferno at her residence in Jos. She was on admission at the Intensive Care Unit of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), for three months.
Dauda sustained deep wounds from the incident, but her chances of survival were confirmed by the medics as “about 70 per cent’’.
Her young age and determination to remain alive gave her a good chance of pulling through, but her inability to afford the huge resources needed to cater for burns victims made that impossible. She died at the end of the third month.
While in the hospital, nurses and other medics often contributed monies to buy drugs and other materials needed for the dressing of her wounds.
As time went on, her situation worsened because she could not get adequate medical care owing to the dearth of funds.
Hospital sources indicated that the medical team showed deep interest in her matter, but could not save her because her parents could not afford even the basic items she required.
A senior medical officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that there were instances when the wounds could not be dressed because the parents could not afford the cost.
“There were times her wounds needed to be dressed twice a day, but the nurses did that only once because of the cost. In some cases, the dressing was carried out once in two days.
“The dressing of the wounds is a key aspect of the treatment and healing process, but her parents could not afford it.
“The parents are peasant farmers. They sought for support from different angles, but did not get any.
“Aside the dressing and drugs, there is the nutritional needs of the victims. Burns victims are placed on a special diet which must be regular to enhance the healing of wounds, but her parents could not afford the meals which left her with a very low protein level and exposed her to various infections.
“At a point, she was billed for a skin crafting after it was observed that her wounds were not healing as expected, but because of her low protein level, that was not possible.’’
According to the medic: “Bejima wanted to survive, but the young and intelligent girl went down because there was no support from government, corporate bodies or individuals.’’
Recent findings have, indeed, confirmed that financial resources have consistently stood between burns victims and chances of survival.
According to records from JUTH, many burns victims in Nigeria have died not because of the pains or effects of the disaster on them, but because of the financial involvement in treating burns.
The situation is different in developed nations where, according to Dr. Akintunde Akintayo, a consultant surgeon at JUTH, burns patients receive huge support and special attention from government.
“In many developed nations, 90 per cent of burns victims survive, no matter the degree of injuries they sustained, because government has a special fund for them.
“In Nigeria, there are no facilities and no support for burns-related cases, even in the specialist hospitals.
“In other countries, there are special votes for burns victims. In Nigeria, no one cares what happens to you when you are burnt. You are left on your own. This is bad,’’ he said.
He said that the attitude had constituted a major bottleneck in the efforts to treat burns victims.
According to Akintayo, the treatment of burns requires huge financial resources.
“If there are no resources for the treatment, the result is often death,’’ he said.
Urging government, NGOs and wealthy individuals to pay attention to burns victims, he said that the treatment, drugs and nutritional needs of the burns victims were not common, hence the need for a special attention for that category of patients.
“The cost of dressing burns is the same as having a major surgery in the theatre.
“Dressing the wounds costs between N50,000 and N60,000 every alternate day. Some patients stay up to 120 days in the hospital.
“If you add that to the cost of feeding, drugs and other hospital charges, you will agree that it is too high for the average Nigerian to afford.
“There is no legislation as yet to ease the management and support for burns patients in Nigeria. I feel that burns patients require similar attention, if not more than, those living with HIV,’’ Akintayo said
Aside funding, the expert is also worried about the paucity of manpower in regards to burns management.
“Sometimes, lots of money can be pumped into caring for a particular patient, but the patient may not survive because of lack of quality management.
“There is the need to train more personnel in that area. Over time, government has concentrated on building structures while relegating to the background, the need for capacity building that will care for the medical needs of patients.
“More attention should be paid to grooming adequate manpower and expertise; we should worry more about content instead of structures.
“We must pay attention to having adequate qualified manpower that will deliver effective service.
“As a plastic surgeon, I can’t just work with any nurse. The fellow must have basic knowledge of burns management,” he said
Akintayo also decried the absence of technological know-how in burns units of most hospitals, saying that the situation had posed a serious challenge to the units.
“I have visited many hospitals; most of them do not have technology of skin preservation and development. Anytime a need for skin crafting arises, it poses massive challenge.’’
He called for a proper awareness from the government and relevant agencies on the management of burns and its risk factors, especially from the initial stage.
“The best way to manage burns is prevention; people must be well educated on the need to abstain from activities that can lead to sustaining burns-related injuries,” he advised.
Dr. Babangida Sankey, another consultant surgeon with JUTH, who also spoke on burns management, cautioned victims against opting for traditional herbs.
“Experience has shown that such herbs usually endanger the lives of the patients. Victims should seek prompt and professional medical attention and avoid options that are crude,’’ he said.
Sankey cited the case of Mr Polycarp Auta, a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who was the first to survive first degree burns of about 70 per cent in the history of JUTH, as a good example on the need to keep faith with the hospitals.
“When Auta was brought here, we did not give him much chance of pulling through, but he did because he had adequate financial strength and, most importantly, he got prompt and quality medical attention.’’
He said that Auta’s survival and healing speed surprised medics in the hospital.
“Auta’s survival surprised many of us. He had no contraction and all the joints in his body were moving freely,’’ he said.
The consultant said that the NAN correspondent, who was on admission at JUTH’s intensive care unit for four months, had adequate care and attention from the medical team because he came in search of proper treatment without delay.
He said that the initial fear over Auta’s possible survival bordered on the quantum and percentage of injuries as well as the general lack of basic knowledge, expertise, facilities and technology in the management of burns in the country.
“When he was brought to the hospital, going by the large number of injuries he sustained, it was logical to conclude that he will not live.
“We have had numerous patients in the past that sustained lesser percentages compared to his case, but didn’t survive it. Auta, from our records, is the first to have sustained that percentage of burns and survived it.
“His ability to pull through, after such massive damage to his body, still amazes medics here,” Sankey declared.
Sankey lauded Auta’s “innate will to stay alive’’, and attributed his survival to his young age, and relations’ ability to meet financial requirements of the treatment.
With the treatment of burns-related medical cases getting more expensive, pundits have called for more attention to that area to minimize the number of deaths from burns.
They also suggest more training toward building a strong network of professionals that will manage burns and avoid complications that had often worsen burns cases. (NANFeatures)
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