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Nigeria’s scary cancer death ratio may yet spike in the next few weeks following the breakdown of the remaining two functional cancer treatment machines in the country.
BDSUNDAY reported last week that there were only two functional cancer treatment machines in Nigeria for a population of over 170 million, one in Sokoto and the other at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
But our recent visit to LUTH revealed that even those two have broken down, with remote chances of their immediate repair, leaving many cancer patients, including those from Northern and Eastern Nigeria, stranded at LUTH.
“We called the engineer from Sokoto. It was our own machine and Sokoto that were working before. Sokoto has broken down, LUTH too has broken down,” Remi Ajekigbe, professor of Radiotherapy & Oncology and consultant radiotherapist and oncologist at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos and LUTH, told BDSUNDAY.
“The engineer came down and checked the machine after which he said he was going to Sokoto to bring something. Actually, if he brings the something, the machine would work, but what he is going to bring is just a substitute and it’s just temporary. He’s supposed to buy it either from South Africa or The Netherlands, but he says he cannot come now because of Sallah.
“Because of the public holiday on Monday and Tuesday, he is likely to come on Thursday after taking Wednesday to rest because he’s a Muslim. So, by God’s grace, five days from Thursday, we should be able to fix the machine,” Ajekigbe said. BDSUNDAY encountered many cancer patients at LUTH, who were devastated by the news of the breakdown of the machine, as they bewailed the utter hopelessness of the situation.
Christiana Thomas, a cancer patient who came to enquire whether her appointment on Tuesday would be shifted to Wednesdaybecause of the public holiday, wept when she was told that she had to wait a little longer.
“What kind of nonsense is this? I came all the way from Ikorodu to find out my new appointment date and see a doctor because part of my body is swollen and the pain I feel is almost unbearable, only to hear this ugly news,” Thomas lamented, wiping her tears with the tip of her wrapper.
Another patient, who had come all the way from Enugu State, just sat staring at the ceiling, probably thinking of what her next move would be.
“This government is heartless! It is poor people like me who are feeling all these pains. Government has bluntly refused to help because they fly abroad anytime they want to see a doctor. I came all the way from Enugu to use the machine. My God will judge them,” she said when she sound her voice.
“Today is the day they said I will use the machine and I don’t know what will happen since they say the machine is faulty,” said Mary Kade, a widow who had visited for the same purpose.
“They say they will give me tablets to relieve the pain I feel pending the time the machine will be ready,” Kade said.
Another patient who had come all the way from the North never said a word, but her body language spoke volumes.
But a staff of LUTH, who gave his name simply as Victor, said he was not surprised that the machine broke down because it was overstressed.
“We are overworking the machine. We put it on around 6am and it runs until 8pm/9pm on a daily basis. This one machine attends to 80 to 100 people every day. In South Africa, one hospital has eight machines and it’s 20 patients to one machine,” he said.
CHUKS OLUIGBO & CHINWE AGBEZE
