With the incidents of sudden deaths becoming common in the country, experts urge Nigerians to take their health more seriously, BUKOLA ADEBAYO reports
When the people of Ondo State received the news that one of their own, a politician and former Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ranti Akerele, died in his sleep this month, many of them must have particularly felt disturbed.
In fact, it is not surprising that they felt this way, considering that not too long ago, another native and former governor, Olusegun Agagu, collapsed and died after a meeting in his Lagos residence.
Agagu’s Personal Assistant, Mr. Sunday Oyepitan, said his principal looked hale and hearty and had just returned from the United States where he had gone for medical checkup.
As if to compound the psychological problems of the people, a lawmaker from the state also joined Agagu and Akerele in the journey of no return.
The legislator, Raphael Nomiye, a member representing Ilaje/Ese Odo constituency in the House of Representatives, died two months ago.
Nomiye, 50, collapsed and died at his Abuja residence shortly after returning from a social function.
Close family members also said the deceased never took ill and did not complain of any ailment before he slumped.
It also came as a shock to many, when the news broke two Saturday ago that Ghanaian journalist and main presenter of the BBC World News programme Focus on Africa, Komla Dumor, collapsed and died at his home in London.
Although he had experienced a brief illness, Dumor seemed fit and healthy to his friends and international audience.
Doctors later confirmed that he had suffered a heart attack at the age of 41.
Also, when 43-year-old trader, Mr. James Chukwu, recently collapsed and died while attending to a customer in his shop at Yaba, Lagos, many were quick to attribute his death to the handiwork of his enemies who were envious of his progress.
Indeed, it is not strange to hear the claims of witchcraft whenever such ‘mysterious deaths’ occur in many parts of the country.
Besides the aforementioned, many other Nigerians who, on the surface, looked healthy, had suddenly died of late.
As if to confirm this, President Goodluck Jonathan last December expressed worry over the rising incidence of sudden deaths in the country.
He said, “Though no exact statistics is at hand over such cases, many doctors and health practitioners still attest to the fact that the scourge has come to stay in the country.”
While some physicians attribute this to increasing cases of heart diseases, economic burden and lifestyle changes, others point to inadequate facilities in the nation’s hospitals. For the latter school of thought, lack of emergency and ambulance services and a general poor attitude towards health matters are other contributing factors to the scourge.
Family physician, Dr. Shola Olalude, says sudden death is frequent these days because many Nigerians who have life-threatening heart disease — a condition that could kill immediately when not treated — do not know they have it.
Olalude, while clarifying that there is nothing sudden or ‘mysterious’ about these deaths, says the cases could have been prevented if people took their health seriously in the first place.
He adds, “More Nigerians are suffering from heart diseases and they do not even know. They must have been experiencing the symptoms but they decided that they do not need to treat them medically.
“Many individuals are walking around with cardiac diseases that can strike and kill them in their sleep or at work without knowing it. That you look healthy does not mean that you are well. We must be aware that ignorance is very costly.”
Statistics also show that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of such deaths across the globe. Available information indicates that they kill about 17 million people annually, with 80 per cent of the cases occurring in middle — and low-income countries like Nigeria.
Also, Consultant Neurosurgeon, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, says the two medical conditions that kill people immediately can actually be prevented if only people know their health status and take steps to address any shortcomings.
He adds that if people do regular medical checkups to know their blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure levels, 90 per cent of sudden deaths that occur in the country could have been avoided.
Ogungbo says, “There are two things that kill people immediately — a heart attack or a stroke. When your blood pressure is so high that it blocks blood flow to your heart or brain, you can die instantly. If you have high blood sugar or you are obese, fat in your blood vessels can block blood flow to the heart or brain, and this can kill in less than a minute.
“But, of course, many Nigerians do not know they have high blood pressure or that they are diabetic or even obese. So, suddenly, a little crisis comes up and they are stressed and their already high blood pressure or blood sugar shoots through the roof and they die instantly.”
But a public health physician, Dr. Femi Oloyede, sees the issue from a different perspective. For instance, he identifies rising economic burden, poor lifestyle and increased urbanisation as factors that could predispose individuals to the sudden death syndrome.
Oloyede states, “Over the years, social and economic burden on people living in urban areas has doubled at an alarming rate. This stressful situation tells on their health by making them susceptible to diseases that kill suddenly. With increasing workload, people have less time to exercise, cook or to eat good food. When your lifestyle is bad, your health deteriorates.”
Meanwhile, besides identifying the likely causes, they have also proffered solutions to remedying the situation. For instance, they urge the government to put in place medical emergency services to reduce mortality rate in the country.
Ogungbo notes that the lack of emergency services to resuscitate speedily individuals that have suffered heart attack or stroke has also increased the number of Nigerians dying suddenly.
He adds, “If someone collapses on the road or at work, instead of gathering round to watch the person dying, people should call on paramedics, who will come and resuscitate the patient. Again, there are no functional medical telephone lines to use in such an emergency in the country.
“We need our own 911 emergency services that people can call for help when somebody collapses. Doctors have discovered that the majority of people that collapsed did not actually die instantly, they could have lived if they got treatment in the first 30 minutes.”
Copyright PUNCH.
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