A Trip to the Hospital

Kerry and I had just made a journey into town, to go to the supermarket for some items. On our way back we passed a mob of people of the expressway, trying desperately to flag down any car that was willing to stop. Sister Helena pulled the car off to the side of the road, but she was wary of stopping. She said that often if you help in these situations, if you bring someone to the hospital, you have to stay with them. And if something goes wrong, then often the person who tried to help was blamed for the accident. I think she was also concerned for Kerry and I, who have only been here about a week. In the end, she decided it would be best to try and help in what ever way she could. She told Kerry and I to stay in the car while she went up to the Nigerians and find out what was wrong. At this point, people were running at full speed towards the accident, word around here travels fast; a woman was screaming and wailing as she rain towards us. Coming from the opposite direction of the crash, she cried ‘na my son, na my son’. We thought, maybe her son was the one in the accident. We waited for a few minutes, and then the mob started moving in our direction, led of course, by Sr. Helena. Two men were carrying a young woman, maybe in her early 20’s, she was bleeding heavily from her right leg. I strained to see what had happened to her, and it wasn’t until later that I saw what happened.

The two men placed her, and themselves, in the back seat of the car, while Kerry, Helena and I got into the front. We drove to the hospital. I couldn’t believe the bravery of this woman, who didn’t make a sound. We navigated the Nigerian traffic and bumpy roads until we got to the hospital. When we reached the hospital, the road became bad again, and our car had to go over a huge rut, which caused the girl to shout in agony. The hospital grounds were hard to navigate, and signs for emergency were basically non existent. Finally, the nurses and doctors came out with a gurney and helped the woman on to it. As she came closer I saw that her leg was badly fractured, and her bone was protruding from her shin. As they wheeled her into the hospital, I wondered what would happen to her. It makes me so proud to be living with such extraordinary women.

On the way home, Helena said “Well that was an exciting bit of adventure for your sixth day in Nigeria”, and I was thinking the most interesting thing I was going to write about was the biscuits I bought at the super market.