By Victoria Ojeme
On 26th of August, 2011, a suicide bomber drove a bomb-laden car into the United Nations building in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, shattering the peace, lives and dreams of those unlucky to be within the building at the time.

The blast caused injuries to 106 persons, some of whom were treated in Nigeria – they include 64 U.N staff members, 50 non-UN staff and 2 dead persons that are yet to be identified.

Among these, 17 seriously injured victims were evacuated to South Africa – 12 UN and five non-UN staff – for specialist treatment.

*Member Fesse, UN bomb blast victim

One of those who cheated death and got flown abroad for specialist care is Member Feese.

In the confusion  that trailed the blast, the anguish and despair on the face of Member’s niece, Mrs Victoria Ngo, who kept vigil at the Intensive Care Unit of the National Hospital, where an unconscious Member laid, can not be easily forgotten.

Mrs. Ngo stood there in the hospital crying her eyes out, saying, “As I am talking to you now, they have not allowed us to see her. She is in Intensive Care Unit. She is unconscious, she is just 21 years. But all I have to say is that, this is a very terrible situation. It is our turn today, we don’t know, who is next”.

After several months abroad receiving specialist care, Member came back to the country penultimate week, looking fit and healthy, with just a slight hint of physical discomfort arising from the blast.

Member, who got caught in the blast when she visited the UN Building to source materials for a Masters Degree thesis in a United Kingdom academic institution, told Sunday Vanguard her story.

According to her, “I went to UN Building on 26th of August to carry out research for my Masters Thesis and the person I was meeting said I should stay in the reception and he will come down and meet me but before the person came down the blast occurred.

“I was taken to the National Hospital. The UN evacuated us to National Hospital first and after two days, evacuated me to United Kingdom in an air ambulance” she added.

On her impression of emergency care at the National Hospital, Member could not remember much in those two days when she hovered between life and death.

Member remembered that she regained consciousness, almost five months after being evacuated to the UK, underscoring the severity of the blast impact on her, saying, “The earliest I remember is on the 28th of December, 2011, when I regained full consciousness.  But they said I woke up a week before that and I was blinking and that if you ask me what I want I can blink once for yes, twice for no but I didn’t remember much”.

Member also speaks on her new pet project, a Non Governmental Organisation dedicated to seeking improved services in hospitals in Nigeria.

She informed Sunday Vanguard that the NGO, TeamMember, “is an advocacy group.  So we are fighting for improved service delivery and we are starting with the National Hospital because that is the place that it all started.  In National Hospital they have a CT SCAN but there’s no cable; so we are asking questions like where is the cable? Where is the first aid? They don’t have an MIR Scan; they had to transfer me to Aso Clinic.

They don’t have an MIR Scan and the National Hospital is meant to be the main hospital in Abuja so we are just asking basic questions and we are asking those in the national hospital for them to improve the services that they provide.

“I think they should pay more attention to the hospital because the hospital is a centre that accepts everyone so they should improve the services. They may think they have the wherewithal to fly out of the country in emergency cases but what if there are complications.

Member compared the quality of health services in the UK, where she was flown to for treatment with the Nigerian situation, saying, “the services were professional and there were about 20 doctors looking after me at the same time.  It was not just one particular doctor; there were specialists aplenty”.

It should be pointed out here that the problem of personnel is manifest at the National Hospital just as the need for improved provision of equipment remains very paramount.