By Ebele ORAKPO
THAT man would have survived if help had come to him quickly. He bled for a very long time,” said Ben in reaction to the news of the sudden death of a friend of his.
“It’s heart-rending when you hear how accident victims die unnecessarily.

The blame rests squarely on the doorstep of government,” noted Tony. “People are willing and ready to help such victims but there is a law in place stipulating that before a doctor can treat an accident victim, there must be police report. And until that useless law is repealed, people will continue to die unnecessarily,” he added.

Said Ifeanyi: “Initially, I thought Nigerians were hard-hearted because you will see an accident victim bleeding profusely and instead of helping him, people would gather round about him, sighing and feeling sorry for him without lifting a finger to help get him to hospital.”

“No, most Nigerians are kind-hearted. The thing is that they try to be careful. Remember the saying:‘Once bitten, twice shy.’ Some have suffered immensely in the hands of the police simply because they dared to help an accident victim,” stated Uzo.

“That’s very true my brother,” said Myke. “My friend once helped an accident victim and in the end, he became victimised as the police accused him of being the person who knocked the man down. He was required by the hospital to deposit some money and then get police report before they could commence treatment. No be small wahala o.”
“What? And the man was dying before their eyes?” asked Joke.

“Of course!” replied Myke. “He was bleeding profusely and the person who hit him had absconded leaving him in a pool of his own blood. According to my friend, without thinking of all the hassles he would pass through, he quickly begged a few onlookers around the place to help him lift the injured man into his car and he took him to a nearby hospital to at least get a first aid treatment.

But to his shock, the doctors and nurses on duty refused to attend to the injured man. They asked him to get a police report and then deposit a certain amount of money before they could start treatment. His pleadings that they should commence treatment while he rushed to the police station to get police report and then go home for some money, fell on deaf ears.”

“And to think that he did not know the victim from Adam!” exclaimed Ben. “Under normal circumstances, the first reaction of the doctors and nurses would have been to save that man’s life before asking for police report and money. What a world!”
“So what happened eventually? Did he get the report?” asked Uzo.

“Getting police report was another kettle of fish. He was asked all kinds of questions some of which he could not answer because the victim was a total stranger to him. He was just helping on humanitarian ground,” replied Myke. “Anyway, the men in black eventually accused him of being the ‘hit and run’ driver who was pretending to be helping the man.

The poor man now had to start fighting to extricate himself from the evil web the police wove around him. He was put behind bars until a few days later when by divine intervention, he was let off the hook. So tell me, if tomorrow that kind of a person sees another victim, will he be willing to help? The man died for lack of prompt medical attention.”

“And so many people have lost their lives in circumstances such as this. I think it’s high time the government revisited this obnoxious policy. Save lives first. And the doctors who are supposed to save lives just allow people to die because of some useless police report,” noted Tony.

“Hmm, there’s more to that than meets the eye,” said Ben. “It think it’s money matter. Without depositing a certain amount of money, most hospitals will not treat patients. That’s just the way it is.”

“Is it supposed to be so? Is life not more than money?” asked Tony.
“Well, no, it’s not supposed to be so but some patients have also been so unfair to some doctors who went ahead to treat them after promising to pay at a later date.

Unfortunately, some of them disappeared into thin air once they were well enough, leaving the hospitals with losses. They are not charity organisations you know,” replied Ben.

“I know some patients who were detained by the hospitals to work for them in order to offset their bills, which I think is better,” noted Ifeanyi.