Saturday 18 January 2014
Unlike cancer and HIV, treatment of epilepsy is one condition that seems not to have enough governments’ attention. Stakeholders have raised call for governmental intervention, stressing the negative effects of the ailment on victims. CHIBUNMA UKWU writes
It was supposed to be a beautiful afternoon. Life was going on well but not for the epileptic patient, Hadiza ( not real name). This special afternoon, she had decided to cook for the family. While she was still in the kitchen with her pot of food, almost done, without notice or warning of any sort, the seizure came.
So severe was the seizure that it threw Hadiza hard on the floor who fell alongside the hot pot of food thereby sustaining serious burns on herself. But for the sounds of the crashing cooking utensils, nobody would have known what Hadiza was passing through. It was the sounds of the crashing cooking utensils that attracted neighbours who rushed her to the hospital for medical attention.
The above is a recount of the one epileptic patient. Flashing mind back at life, she will say that epileptic is an ailment that dreadful because of its nature. speaking further, she states that the ailment is such that causes dent on the lives and personalities of patients.
Hadiza is not the only one with such view on the ailment, epilepsy. For another patient and a motorist, Chukwuma Dike, it is by the mercies of God that epileptic patients live from day to day.
Narrating her ordeal, he recounted that he is an individual that loves riding bikes. However, the epileptic ailment makes it difficult for him to have this desire of his. Although his mother has warned him severally against riding alone, Chukwuma revealed that he could not help it. Then, came a day when he had a seizure riding along Bwari Area Council and fell off the bike.
“Although I am epileptic, I live my life as strongly as I could. This also means that I do various things I want. One thing that keeps me going is the fact that we are like every other persons. We are normal and healthy. The only difference is the seizures which we have at intervals. To some, the intensity of the seizures will leave them with wounds.”
Narrating one of the times he had seizures, Chukwudi said, “ One day, I was going on an errand to Bwari so I had to ride o my bike. I had gone far in the journey when along Usman Dam, I had an attack and that was all I could remember. When I regained consciousness, I realized I was in Kubwa General Hospital. On inquiry, I was told I had a seizure while riding along Usman Dam in Bwari Area Council. Obviously, I fell off the bike and hit my head on the road.”
Another event on what epileptic ailment could do to patients was seen recently in Berger Bus- Stop in Abuja. A bus driver drove his bus to the mini- police post in Berger and opening the bus, the body of a young man was seen lying motionless. The only thing that shows he is alive were the screams that he makes when touched.
On inquiry, it was realized that it was a case of epileptic seizure. The young man whose name is withheld, had dressed up for work and had in fact boarded a commercial bus to his destination when he had a seizure and was blanked out right there in the bus.
In view of what epilepsy does to patients, it is no doubt that the sickness is such that should be given uttermost attention. However, some health experts decry that government does not give attention to alleviating the ailment the way attention is given to cases like cancer and HIV.
Giving insights to how epileptic patients could manage themselves better, an Abuja based medical practitioner, Dr. Magnus Echebiri, encouraged that medical treatment should be taken seriously and devotedly.
“Concerning epilepsy, prevention is better than cure. Usually because once a person has it, the best thing to do is to get treated. Go for medical checkup and take your drugs. However, on the issue of preventing it, try to avoid any injury to the brain, any form of tumor especially cancer around the brain. Even cancer can make one to have seizures. So if these things can be prevented, you will not have any reason for any seizures.
For people who already have it from birth, the best thing to do is to ensure that the child is taken to the hospital where medications are administered to him which he should take as much as the doctors want them to be taken.”
For a nurse with Sauki Private Hospitals Limited, Abuja who did not want his name in print, epileptic patients should be given special care. They should be shown love all the time and efforts should be made to see that they are not mostly alone.
“Living them alone in the house is not really to be encouraged. This is because they can have seizure at any time. And the worst is that those seizures cannot be predicted. They don’t have premonitions of whatsoever when the seizure can come or is about to come. And while in crises, their brains are seized, they don’t know anything about them again and they cannot call for help due to the fact that their brains are seized. It is for this reason that they should be conscious of their environs, because there are some places that are not friendly for them. Example is being in the market because they do not like crowds.”
Speaking on what she termed an effective way to care for epileptic patients in Nigeria, the President of Angie Epilepsy Foundation, Mrs. Angela Asemota called on government to help patients not to see epilepsy as any form of limitation. This she said, they can do by creating awareness as well as providing quality diagnosis that will aid people know that epilepsy is not contagious and can be treated.
So severe was the seizure that it threw Hadiza hard on the floor who fell alongside the hot pot of food thereby sustaining serious burns on herself. But for the sounds of the crashing cooking utensils, nobody would have known what Hadiza was passing through. It was the sounds of the crashing cooking utensils that attracted neighbours who rushed her to the hospital for medical attention.
The above is a recount of the one epileptic patient. Flashing mind back at life, she will say that epileptic is an ailment that dreadful because of its nature. speaking further, she states that the ailment is such that causes dent on the lives and personalities of patients.
Hadiza is not the only one with such view on the ailment, epilepsy. For another patient and a motorist, Chukwuma Dike, it is by the mercies of God that epileptic patients live from day to day.
Narrating her ordeal, he recounted that he is an individual that loves riding bikes. However, the epileptic ailment makes it difficult for him to have this desire of his. Although his mother has warned him severally against riding alone, Chukwuma revealed that he could not help it. Then, came a day when he had a seizure riding along Bwari Area Council and fell off the bike.
Narrating one of the times he had seizures, Chukwudi said, “ One day, I was going on an errand to Bwari so I had to ride o my bike. I had gone far in the journey when along Usman Dam, I had an attack and that was all I could remember. When I regained consciousness, I realized I was in Kubwa General Hospital. On inquiry, I was told I had a seizure while riding along Usman Dam in Bwari Area Council. Obviously, I fell off the bike and hit my head on the road.”
Another event on what epileptic ailment could do to patients was seen recently in Berger Bus- Stop in Abuja. A bus driver drove his bus to the mini- police post in Berger and opening the bus, the body of a young man was seen lying motionless. The only thing that shows he is alive were the screams that he makes when touched.
In view of what epilepsy does to patients, it is no doubt that the sickness is such that should be given uttermost attention. However, some health experts decry that government does not give attention to alleviating the ailment the way attention is given to cases like cancer and HIV.
For people who already have it from birth, the best thing to do is to ensure that the child is taken to the hospital where medications are administered to him which he should take as much as the doctors want them to be taken.”
For a nurse with Sauki Private Hospitals Limited, Abuja who did not want his name in print, epileptic patients should be given special care. They should be shown love all the time and efforts should be made to see that they are not mostly alone.
“Living them alone in the house is not really to be encouraged. This is because they can have seizure at any time. And the worst is that those seizures cannot be predicted. They don’t have premonitions of whatsoever when the seizure can come or is about to come. And while in crises, their brains are seized, they don’t know anything about them again and they cannot call for help due to the fact that their brains are seized. It is for this reason that they should be conscious of their environs, because there are some places that are not friendly for them. Example is being in the market because they do not like crowds.”
