Journey To the West: The "A" Issue

Journey To the West: The "A" Issue: Anytime I think about abortion, a number of things run through my mind.   A couple of years ago it was easy for me to comment on either p...

The "A" Issue

Anytime I think about abortion, a number of things run through my mind.  A couple of years ago it was easy for me to comment on either pro choice or anti abortion with no qualms.  As a Christian I believe whole heartedly that killing of life in whatever form or at whatever stage be it a day old foetus to a fully fledged human being is unacceptable. Now do not jump into conclusion that I belong to the anti abortion faction. I have not thought about abortion (call it termination of a pregnancy or in short <TOP> in the medical field we call that politically correct term) in a while as my field of specialty does not usually come across clients with such problems unless by some error she comes into my ward. Such a client is shuffled off to the gynaecologist as quickly as possible before disputes come as to who should manage the client especially when there is a medical diagnosis attached.

Anyway, I have not thought about this in a while until about 3 weeks ago when a discussion came up amongst some medical colleagues of mine.  For starters, these 3 doctors are professed Christians and were debating what to do if a woman comes to you and request for termination of pregnancy.  In Ghana TOP is legal when performed in an authorized hospital by authorized personnel (with some slight legalities which we can discuss later).  The law of being a medical professional requires that if you can not provide a service you must refer or direct the person to a place where such a service can be provided.  Some of my colleagues said they felt guilty when they referred clients to places where TOPs could be performed as it felt as though they had assisted in terminating a life.  I used to feel the same way when I had to do the same but then I visited the family planning services which carried out these abortions and found out that in these certified places, before you undergo the procedure, you are counseled further and when the personnel are satisfied and or convinced about your desire for the termination, then the procedure is carried out.  So at the end of the day the woman is the one who makes that choice for herself.  It is almost like saying you can force a horse to the river bank, but you cannot force it to drink water. 

One of my colleagues told of a story whereby a young lady visited a clinic and in consulting with the medical doctor, told him that she was 2 months pregnant and wanted to terminate her pregnancy.  Now the doctor who did not believe or condone abortion counseled her and tried to convince her not to terminate the pregnancy.  After about 1 hour of counseling the woman was still insistent but my colleague refused to carry it out.  Later that evening whilst on call, my colleague was called to see an emergency involving a young lady who had be brought in bleeding copiously.  He rushed to the ER only to find the young lady lying on the ER bed in a pool of blood and dying.  The lady passed away, despite all efforts to resuscitate.  The doctor was dumbfounded, and could not believe his eyes.  Now he wondered if he had done the right thing by not helping the young lady out.  She had tried to terminate the pregnancy on her own and had succeeded in doing so, but at the cost of her own life.

Thinking about this young lady makes me also remember my days as a house officer in OBGYN when in the middle of the night a teenager was brought to the ER cold and pale with evidence of severe blood loss, the people who brought her all denied knowledge of her and her condition, it took one brave young man who spoke to me after other relatives had left to tell me that the young woman had been brought to the house a few days back to terminate a pregnancy by taking some pills and herbs resulting in her bleeding to death.  No one wanted to claim responsibility for this so when the bleeding got worse it took a long time to make that decision to come to the hospital by which time it was too late.

Across the street where from the hospital I worked at in Accra, the young women know what to do, they know what drugs to take, so they would take the drugs to induce an abortion and when the bleeding starts they would head to the hospital and in order to manage the situation the medical personnel would have to terminate the pregnancy.  In effect, they knew that if they started the process, it would be completed by the hospital.

This is just one of thousands of stories which happen on a daily basis, many young women are dying through these illegal abortions.  In Ghana, many people do not know that most hospitals offer these services as part of their family planning methods, but these are not publicized for reasons which I do not know.  Perhaps we want our family planning services to focus more on preventing pregnancies rather than terminating them.

It is not an easy thing for a young person to approach a family planning unit and seek the counseling services especially when they are unmarried.  They are looked upon us immoral, however we fail to educate the young ones properly in good morals and we are not ready to support them when things go wrong and pregnancies occur.

So at the end of the day are you Pro choice or Anti Abortion? Don’t be too quick to come to conclusions and also to judge people. The question one must answer is “Whose life am I saving?”

Catchup

Do I start with an apology? it has been 4 months sinc my last posting. To me i have been writing everytday but in my head, so that amounts to naught! Let me formally apologise and then thank Awuranaa & B. Kordai for alerting me that I have a blog which I must continue writing. I just hope that I have not lost anyone in this process of procrastination.
Enough said, I think the best thing to do is to catch up on what has been happening over this period of time. What must have taken a greater chunk of my time was the planning and organization of the World Diabetes Day Celebrations here in Sekondi-Takoradi.  I would like to first of all thank all the planning committee members who absorbed all my tantrums and helped us organise a fantastic celebration.
Seeking sponsorship is not an easy thing, more especially when you are unknown to them. I had to fall back on contacts in Accra to get the much needed sponsorship and thank God it came through. Many thanks to the CEO who after sending an email and waiting his reply immediately gets his personal assistant to send me a reply via phone, seconds after reading the email. Thats what i call immediate response and many thanks to the other companies who initially were reluctant to provide funds and gave chunks to those in the capital city who later had nothing to show for the money they they were given. We however with the little money given to us were able to show/account via pictures and videos so guess what, the companies now are promising to sponsor us next year, now i hope to hold them on their words.
I was saddened by the response of some "bodies" who had been invited to our functions to educate them on diabetes and to give them free medical check up as we had to foot their transport bills. I was so disappointed as they sent people to our office to collect money after the program to cover their transport bills. Now I would have gladly given the money if they were students, however these were well-abled adults working who insisted on us providing them money for transport, giving them snacks and afterwards giving them free medical screening for the year. As one of our Matrons said "Well, Nana Ama, I guess we have learnt our lesson, next time we know who to invite for our ceremonies when we have limited money". I complained bitterly to by father who told me that this is an initiation into the culture developed here in Ghana were people expect you to pay for things for them even after you have given them something more valuable for free.
Learning to keep my temper in check was one thing that i learnt from this experience of organizing programs. The morning of the program, we found out that the person responsible for setting up chairs and canopies at the ceremony was no where to be found. She was traced to her home after being unable to reach her on the phone. She simply shrugged her shoulders and said she had decided not to partake in the program.  I could not believe my ears. We had a contract with her and she just could not be bothered to even call early so we could have made alternative plans.  I was raving mad and angry and at such a stage its tears which come to my eyes, all the dignitaries were present at the empty lot for the program and i was stuck in traffic (yes we in Takoradi now experience this...no thanks to the OIL~) with nothing else but a word of prayer i slowed headed to the program.  Thanks to the fact that Takoradi is a small place, the matron managed to get another venue in minutes and we transported all those present to the new location. Any many more thanks to the radio stations in the metropolis who had be calling me all morning for interviews, we managed to get the news to the general public about the change in location. Thank God the program came out successfully, but not without a stern word from the Honorable dep. minister for the region. My first instinct was to find out the whereabouts of the person who disappointed us and tell her my peace of mind.  Matron however told me to forget it as it was not worth making any "unfriends" at this stage in our lives.  But then again, i often wonder if such work ethics should not be made mention of. Time in time out, a lot of GH entrepreneurs may promise and fail and do not bear the consequences of such demeanour and as always we GHs say "oh just let it go" and guess what we are faced with such scenarios over and over and over again.

I call it gross indicipline and bad work ethics...I just returned from a month's training in Health Adm & Management and so we shall dwell a bit more on that in my next blog.
Thanks for reading and thanks to all who contributed to diabetes via education in their own ways or sponsorship of the program.