.....AND SHE DIED

I heard she put to bed...Friday. So in excitement I called her. She sounded so elated saying her birthday is just few days away. She had been delivered of a baby girl. Yippee! We would go throw a party to celebrate the birth of the baby in another eight days. That is our culture.

Then came the call to my hubby's phone at night. It was my brother in-law saying his wife who had put to bed earlier in the day is now unconscious. I told my hubby, it can't be. I spoke with her and she was very ok.' anyway, he still had to go check her on Saturday to be sure she was fine. When he got there, he called me to confirm she was unconscious. Now that is really worrying. I had no clue what led to that. So as usual, I started asking my brother who is a medical doctor, what could be the likely cause. My hubby also asked the doctor in charge of my sister in-law’s delivery and it came to light that apparently her blood pressure shot up after child birth. This is a case know as post-partum eclampsia.

I called later that day; I was told 'she is asleep now. No longer unconscious. Of course I felt relieved. If only I knew then she never actually came to. Rather she fitted again through the unconsciousness.

Sunday came and I joined my husband, along with the kids to go see my sister in-law and her new baby. I got there. I went in the room where she lay unconscious. She is naturally very light skinned. The skin of the lady lying there looked so much darker and her mouth was open breathing forcefully, the sound of fluid in lungs was very clear to me and her tummy moved up and down in a fast irregular motion. I stayed a bit, and then I went and stood in the balcony. I made a call to my brother to describe as precise as I could the present condition of my sister in-law. He said with the way I described the treatment she was being given, she is not getting the sort of treatment she needed. She has been in that unconscious state for over 48hrs. So a decision was made to take her to another hospital. According to the doctor, as at the time she had the first fit that led to her being unconscious, her BP was 220/140. We took her to a private hospital that we were referred to but was told the doctor traveled. And in haste and fear and anxiety, we rushed her to another federal government hospital (all state government hospitals were on strike) were we were told there was no bed space. We pleaded for her to be seen even if on a stretcher but they insisted they had to get a bed for her first. By this time we were all crying in fear. We rushed her to another private hospital and by the time we got there, she was still breathing in that heavy, stressed irregular, fast patter. Then, as d car stopped, she seemed to heave a deep breath...her last breath. A nurse came out (coincidentally, one who knows...knew her) and by the time she was done checking her vitals, she confirmed her dead.

My iyale, my senior wife, my sister in-law, she was dead. She was gone. I called her name severally she did not respond....death, not such an abstract word after all.