THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com
Thursday, June 5, 2014 NATURAL HEALTH 45
Ondo provides succour for trauma victims By Wole Oyebade in Ondo State, StheOMEWHERE what many on this side of world considered only a futuristic possibility is happening with remarkable results. Either the act of opening up of the skull of a living human, tinkering with traumatized brain tissues, and other organs for the purpose of correcting an anomaly, or elongation of a short leg, replacing a hip bone or joint, or piecing together a traumatized internal organ, medical operations hitherto considered the preserve of distant hospitals in Europe, America and more recently Asia, are being carried out with ease. In a brand new structure within the sprawling Medical Village Complex, Off Laje Road, Off the Ondo-Ore Road in Ondo, victims of trauma, old and new, are being treated and their hitherto intractable conditions are being resolved. Name them; musculoskeletal injuries, brain injuries, and other jaw-breaking trauma conditions are receiving effective and efficient interventions in Mimiko’s Trauma Centre. We have a centre of medical excellence built as it were to preserve God’s delicate construction for the coordination of man, and in this case, woman alike,” Duro Adejare, a patient who spoke to this reporter at the Trauma Centre said. His words and experience of others show that indeed the story is changing. Or better put, the story is about changing for the better. That, no one would argue, is the familiar refrain of pastors of the Christian faith prior to delivering another of the miracles that we have come to depend on in complex health challenges on this side of the globe. Yes there are miracles, but they are of a different sort at the Trauma Centre. The change that is here with us is as a result of the creative intervention of the Dr. Olusegun Mimiko government of Ondo State: It comes in the form of the brand new high-end imposing structure called the Ondo State Trauma Centre located in the Medical Village. If the change were to be of structure alone, the Trauma Centre, an architectural delight and an environmentalist’s dream, is a huge success already. But this success pales into less significance if the modernity, efficiency and sophistication of the medical equipment available are factored in. From the crash room, where there are overhead bed panels with oxygen points and suction pump, vitalograph, which has in it equipments like laryngoscope, different range of airway management devices that can be used to quickly establish an airway under an emergency situation, equipments for acute and long term ventilation, multi parameter monitors capable of invasive monitoring, mobile X-ray and 4D ultrasound 64 slides CT scan for quick imaging assessment you get a fair picture of what is on offer in what could well be Ondo’s next signpost for medical tourism. But those are not all there are in the crash room. There are infusion pumps, blood warmers and capacity to quickly establish central lines which provides access for rapid transfusion of large volume of blood in a short interval, there are also various points of care machines that
give instant blood investigation result. The presence of these equipments makes the crash room a resuscitation room, a theatre, a laboratory, an x-ray room and also an intensive care room, because within it all the above five functions could be performed with ease and to the benefit of the patient. Yet there are trolleys that are x-ray compatible. In which case, there is hardly any need to further inconvenience or imperil a trauma patient through turning, shoving and moving. In the Crash room and elsewhere in the Trauma centre, you can slide a film under the patient on the modern trolley and use the mobile x-ray machine available to do a fast and efficient x-ray. There are defibrillators as well as crash carts which have essential drugs that are life saving.
Above all, the protocol in the crash room is such that the possibility of the room running out of stock of essentials at any time is near zero. This is because each item used are replaced immediately before others are needed from among the many stocked. More than this, the personnel that man the crash room are well-trained individuals who have had the benefit of exposure to advanced trauma life support training. If at the Crash room in the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Trauma
Centre, one is regaled with soft-touch equipments that can be used in performing lifesaving operations at the go; that is overhead scanning machines, overlooking for emergency beds/operating tables, other parts of the centre typify excellence and modernity. With ability to scan and churn-out crisp digital pictures in seconds, the Accident and Emergency Unit is equipped to probe, arrest and correct injuries due to trauma even right there at the first point of contact. As soon as bleeding is arrest-
There, the journey of the fortunate patient leads to the wards, either male or female. All of these look simple. They are not as simple as they look. Trauma cases from Road Traffic Accidents account for much of the huge figures of fatalities recorded on our roads in Nigeria. While outright fatalities are many, permanent incapacitation and or disabilities are recorded in their thousands.
ed, resuscitation is concluded and the trauma victim is stabilized, the next point of call is the theater, where more detailed, more profound and deeper investigation and diagnosis could be done. There, the journey of the fortunate patient leads to the wards, either male or female. All of these look simple. They are not as simple as they look. Trauma cases from Road Traffic Accidents account for much of the huge figures of fatalities recorded on our roads in Nigeria. While outright fatalities are many, permanent incapacitation and or disabilities are recorded in their thousands. The reality, more often than not, is of helplessness on the part of Road Traffic Accident victims. The major problems are numerous and multi layered. The first is to alert agencies that could invite help.
The first layer of challenge here is the availability of such ready agencies. The Federal Road Service Commission has become overwhelmed. Police facilities are inadequate. According to Mimiko, the two problems are to become history. There is a brand new Ondo State Accident and Emergency Department working in conjunction with extant agencies to bring immediate care. Several base stations have been established across the State with life support ambulances on stand-by. More than this, the State has procured an emergency toll-free call line. There is now an existing communication centre from which calls could be monitored and help dispatched. More importantly, the State has recruited and trained “accident victims’ evacuation personnel” to man newly procured modern tools for extri-