Mathew’s life took a dramatic turn when he was involved in a car crash while on an official trip. Although he did not sustain a single scratch or bruise, he suffered a spinal cord injury and has been bedridden for over a year now. He lamented that his condition worsened as a result of the neglect he suffered at a tertiary public hospital in Abuja where he was unattended to for some weeks. He said his chances of walking again would have been higher if he was managed early by the hospital.
“I was first rushed to the general hospital in my state capital. Two weeks after, I was referred to the tertiary hospital in Abuja, but the consultants kept postponing the date of surgery. I was in serious pains and was hardly given drugs until my family took me to a private hospital where I had surgery. “Though the pains lessened, I didn’t get better and had to be taken to another public hospital in the south-east where I am now accessing treatment,” he narrated.
Spinal cord injury refers to damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves at the end of the spinal canal. The damage causes changes in its function, and can either be temporary or permanent. These changes lead to loss of muscle function, sensation and function in parts of the body served by the spinal cord.
Medical experts say half of all spinal cord injuries are caused by road traffic accidents; and that Nigeria has high rate of road traffic accidents.
Founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria: Air Ambulance Services, Dr. Ola Brown, said one in every four Africans involved in road traffic accident was a Nigerian; thus making the country have one of the highest spinal chord injury rates in the world, which she said was a major source of concern.
Medical Director of Zitadel Medicals and Diagnostics Limited, Dr. Olumide Alao, said the injury mostly affected people between the ages of 25 to 45.
He said spinal cord injury could be incomplete or complete.
A Consultant Neurosurgeon with Spine Fixed in Abuja (SFIA) Dr. Douglas Emeka Okor, indentified causes of spinal cord injury to include industrial accidents, falls, assault, sport injuries, gun shots, and degeneration from diseases like cancer.
Dr Okor said the way a patient was handled after a road traffic accident would go a long way in preventing or worsening spinal cord injury, as well as recovery.
“There are patients who may have minor spinal cord injury or incomplete spinal injury from an accident, but their condition can turn into complete or serious spinal chord injury if not handled properly.
“So the way a person is pulled out of a crashed car and transferred to another vehicle or an ambulance is important; and it is important to train relevant agencies attending to accident victims on this,” he stressed.
He said a patient with spinal cord injury needed specialist care which involved multi-disciplinary approach and that, “He or she needs a high level care; ‘critical care; that is level two care or level three care’ and is not a patient to be managed in a district or general hospital or small hospitals .”
Dr. Okor advised health personnel to quickly transfer such patients to places with the capacity to manage the complex situation.
The multi-disciplinary approach and team of experts include neurosurgeons, brain surgeons, spine surgeons, physiotherapists, operational therapists, social workers, clinical psychologists, intensive care unit specialists, nurses, among others.
Asked the chances of recovery from spinal cord injury, Dr. Olumide Alao of Zitadel Medicals said it all depended on the degree and quality of treatment the patient got from the time the incident happened and the hospital care and post hospital care.
He said assistive aids, specialised equipment and motorised wheelchairs could help the patient regain function or lead a normal life with any disability.
A physiotherapist, Mbamalu Chibuike Chizoba, a stressed that post hospital care was very important in the management of spinal cord injury, but that Nigeria did not have a single rehabilitation home where patients could access quality long term intensive physical rehabilitation like in other countries.
He said the life of a person with spinal cord injury was completely dependent on the people around him or her and therefore advised families, employers and friends of patients suffering from the condition to make sacrifices and give them maximum support, saying it would enable them live a quality life.
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