The Last Resort: Unraveling a Silent Tragedy in a hospital.
'He who knows most grieves most for wasted time'--- Dante
Dead men don't talk
What happened that Saturday gave the management insight on how to safeguard the patient folder better against intrusion? Bed number 30 lay dead. No breath. No pulse. No pupillary reaction. He lay there cold and lifeless. Streaks of stale sera oozed from his mouth. He was soaked in a pool of clothed blood that had gushed out of his nostrils, ears and abdomen. Under the dead man’s pillow was a 500ml capacity bottle, dark brown in colour and containing about 10ml of concentrated acid.
Death by Acid ingestion.
The doctors and nurses exchanged glances. It was an obvious suicide, reason for committing it unknown. The team sent the bottle to the hospital’s laboratory for sample analysis. When the result arrived, the content in the bottle was tetraoxosulphate VI. The dead man’s name is Odah. He was, before his suicide, an ambulance driver in the very hospital that he was admitted.
Reason for the suicide.
Odah was admitted unconscious and remained in that state for about two weeks. During this period, series of test were conducted with the consent of his wife, retroviral screening inclusive. After he regained consciousness, his wife was no longer talking to him. He tried to find out what the matter was but his wife remained adamant. She later left and never surfaced again. It became clear to him when he sighted a red cross on the upper right part of his folder during the ward rounds. Odah knew the meaning of the red cross marked on the right side of his folder. It meant HIV positive. Now, he knew why his wife had left him and never returned.
Stable to be discharged.
Eight hours before his death, the medical team contemplated discharging him. What delayed this decision was the arrival of the counselor who did the post-HIV testing counseling for him. Odah did not show any sign of post-test crisis. Rather, he spoke calmly with the Nurses at their station after the counselling session. He excused himself in order to get liquid milk from a kiosk opposite the hospital gate.
Ulterior motive.
The Nurses insisted on getting it for him through the help of a hospital attendant but he politely declined. Even when he returned, there was no evidence relating to a suicide attempt. They saw few cans of liquid milk with him. His death only showed them that Odah had tricked them into believing he was actually going to buy milk. His hidden motive was to procure the deadly acid which he had drank. He then lay down on his bed, waiting calmly for his death.
Arrival of his wife.
The Nurses sent the hospital van to pick Odah’s wife. Soon she was inside the medical ward. When she saw her husband bed vacant, she was not alarmed. The fact that her husband was okay when she left for home made her not to worry.
‘Sorry Mrs. Odah, we lost him. He committed suicide by drinking acid’
These words from the mouth of the charge Nurse made her world reeled. She did not believe until she saw his dead, cold and stiff body. She taught she was dreaming but when she touched his face, that dream varnished.
Guilty conscience.
Tears of guilt began to dribble down her cheeks. ‘I did not meant it that way dear’, she told him as she cried harder. She taught of how to take-over the responsibility of their three children. Now that she has got the virus, she needed courage to face the world calmly; yes she tested positive to HIV too. She did the test after finding out that husband was positive. As the attendants wheeled Odah to the mortuary, she observed the trolley’s wheels. She knew someday that would be how she would be wheeled into ward 13, the nickname for mortuary.
This is is based on a true life experience but the names in the story are fictitious and does not bear semblance to any person living or dead. If you like this write-up, follow me and subscribe to my blog in order to have access to subsequent posts of similar stories: https://www.bulbapp.io/u/EFmr8rwar9ABW4ViEd3jd162xaJTABxsby3VVK5dcWQx/validivar
