Pendoctor

If the choice of studying Medicine and Surgery had not been mine, on several fateful days in the past, I would have been angry with the person who counseled me to study the profession.  A particular encounter remains indelible. The year was 2011. On that day, I was unfortunate to be on 24 hours duty in my hospital of postgraduate training. A woman had just been admitted into the labour ward when I took over from my colleague who had worked overnight. Work load was heavy as usual but tolerable. The woman's progress in labour was initially as expected - a relief for any medical professional monitoring women in the twilight hours of their pregnancy. Then the cervix stopped dilating. Her contractions were adequate in strength and frequency but her uterus (womb) stopped opening when it got to 5cm. The baby is expected to be delivered after the cervix must have reached 10cm in diameter. The woman kept shouting due to painful distress. The vital signs of her organs remained stable; likewi...

 When I meet clients who complain of being financially challenged and cannot pay to do essential medical investigations or buy medications, I often remind them that they are richer than they think. "Doctor, I have nobody from whom I can get financial assistance," some of them reply. "Should you die from complications of your disease, wouldn't family members, friends, and members of your religious community contribute money to bury you as a token of final respect?" I ask. All the clients who claim to be poor do not respond to the question. They know I am right. There are still many good people in Nigeria who would stop at nothing until they have assisted others to live productively. Many people experience undue hardship in Nigeria because they want to prove that they are independent and can excel without help. It takes a modicum of humility to identify good people and seek help from them in time. While it's encouraged for everyone to work hard and plan effici...

If Alexander Fleming had dwelt so much on the side effects of Penicillin, the wonder medication that saved several lives in the early 20th century, perhaps many of us would not have lived long enough to read this article. If the Wright Brothers had exercised a morbid fear of crash of their flying contraption, which sparked the invention of the Aeroplane, many persons today would be discouraged to travel long distances. Does it mean we should always look at the positive sides of things only and ignore the possible unfavorable implications? No! We cannot do that. While optimistic thinking invented the ship, pessimistic thinking led to the invention of lifebuoy to prevent death of passengers should the ship sink. While optimistic thought invented the helicopter, pessimistic thought inspired the development of a device that can make passengers survive a crash. The inventor called it Parachute. The beauty of optimism is in harnessing resources to improve quality of life, else it is wishful ...

Evelyn has always been a fighter. At the age of 2, Eve firmly bit the finger of the attendant who held her down during the attempt to mutilate her genitals. While the woman nursed her bleeding thumb, Evelyn ran away. She was too fast for her tender legs. They let her be. Two other attempts to mutilate her failed; she fell ill on both days. Her mother summarily concluded that she was possessed. Evelyn was the only one of four girls in the family who did not undergo female genital mutilation. She grew up like every child. She studied law and graduated with First Class. While waiting for admission into law school, she interned at Alex & David, a top law firm in Lagos. She made a good impression which led David, a founding partner, to encourage her to return for full employment if she was interested. True to their words, Evelyn, at the age of 24, was employed along with three other lawyers by Alex & David. She learnt the ropes very fast. She made good shows in and out of court. ...

We are now in the digital age. Though physical books will be relevant for a very long time, e-books, which have been around, especially in Nigeria, for more than a decade, are getting recognized daily in several institutions. Some persons prefer e-books to physical books for many reasons. To the reader, e-books don't suffer wear and tear. They are mobile and can be accessed anytime.  To the writer, unlike physical books, e-books can be easily sent for editing, publishing, distribution, and re-publishing (in the case of future editions of the book). Writing e-books requires some resources that make the work efficient. Most e-books are cheap, when compared to the hard copy alternative, so the author must find ways to reduce the total cost of production. In no particular order, e-book writers should understand how to use the following resources because they make writing cost-effective and consistent. 1. Knowledge of conversion from Microsoft Word to PDF, JPEG, PNG, and other e-book fo...