Tropical storm

I experienced the power of tropical storm yesterday. There was already raining in morning. We started our ward round a bit late in Sunday morning. Then we had a short case needed operation. The pouring rainfall came while we were in hospital. It cooled down a lot and gave us a good rest at home in afternoon. We went home at around 1pm. The first time I could be out of guest house with other expatriates, we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and supermarket to buy some daily necessities and snacks. It was another busy Monday. We had performed total 15 cases today and ended at usual hour at 9pm. I had performed the second laparotomy for a man stabbed by someone in his abdomen with small bowel perforation and mesentery torn. There are two scheduled intra-medullary nail cases for fracture femur everyday throughout the week. There are lots of fracture cases from road traffic accidents, fall, and each day there will be two or more new gun shot wound cases admitted. I wonder where should these patients get treatment if MSF is not in Port Harcourt? Most of them cannot afford to pay the hospital fee even in public hospitals. Some may go to the local bone setters. Lots of them may end up in cripple. But to what extent should MSF provide the service to this country? Nigeria is not a poor country. It’s the most populous country in Africa with estimated 150 million populations. Nigeria is rich of natural resources. It is the 12th largest production of petroleum in the world and 8th largest exporter. It should have a quite good economy compared with other African countries. But all because of internal conflicts from different tribes, religions, North and South, fighting for the economy and resources control, civilian people are suffering most.