Oga Martins & His Kettle Of Fishes – Episode 8

It was Aisha’s third day at the hospital where her husband was under intensive care in the accident and emergency ward having taken the fall for her, yet there was no glimmer of hope that her dilemma would end soon.

Exactly two years ago she lost the son she bore for Martins tragically. For Aisha, another loss of a loved one would invariably mean the end of her life. She was going to end it anyways until Martins came between her and the most accessible household weapon of annihilation. The knife struck his chest and pierced six centimetres into the left atrium of his heart just fatal enough to leave him at death’s door. Martins had been comatose for three days and the doctors only gave him a slight chance of recovery, and that was because Aisha was too traumatized to hear worse.

Aisha looked green around the gills. She had become a bundle of nerves since she dealt the blow that stoned her husband cold. For the umpteenth time she prayed silently to God for her husband’s recovery, though her fears stood in the way. Martins condition had put her in a downtrodden state such that she feared her husband had breathe his last when she struck at his heart.

As she sat in the high back patient chair close to his bed, Aisha didn’t understand how her husband would ever recover from a state that saw to it that he wouldn’t even twitch a muscle for a whooping three days.

“This doctors should just tell me the truth and stop leading me on. He sure doesn’t look like he’s gonna wake up from this deep sleep.” She lamented to a husband that had become a vegetable. She shook her husband vehemently in frustration. “He won’t even budge”She said tearfully. “God what is this.” She slowly let her mind drift as the events of the last 72 hours leading to her husband’s present comatose state played out.

**********************************************************************************

“I’m sorry Mrs. Martins, your husband has slipped into a coma” Doctor Don said while approaching Aisha who had been seated at the waiting room the whole day

“Doctor I don’t understand. What is that suppose to mean?” Aisha voiced out alarmingly.

“It simply means your husband is in a deep state of unconsciousness where he is unable to consciously respond to stimuli…

Aisha cuts in impatiently. “I know what coma is, what I don’t understand is how he could possibly be comatose from a mere knife stab”

“Madam you call what happened to your husband a mere knife stab?”

“I’m sorry doctor but coma…? That’s extreme now.” She apologized soberly.

“Mrs. Martins your husband’s left atrium-the organ that carries oxygenated blood from the heart to other parts of the body was punctured by the knife. The implication of this is that a part of the brain has been deprived of oxygen, a condition called hypoxia, hence the resultant comatose state.”

“Oh my God! Doctor can you just explain things in plain terms!”

“This is as plain as it can be madam”

“You call all the information you just divulged about my husband’s condition plain?” she said disappointedly.

“If not that I am trying to be strong for my husband you would have had two patients in comatose state by now with all those your medical jargons.”

“I’m sorry Ma’’am…”

“All I need to know doc is if there is any hope of recovery, because with all you just said his condition looks worse than it was when I rushed him here”

“Madam your husband was knocking on death’s door when you brought him here. Within the time you’ve spent here we’ve had to make him go under the knife, treated the head injury he sustained from the fall after the stab and managed to resuscitate him. But of course that still wasn’t good enough to stop him from sliding into coma because of the part of the brain that had been deprived of oxygen.”

“Doctor Don will you stop blabbing and just tell me the way forward!” Aisha was beginning to blow a fuse. “Who knows if you even know what you are saying sef?”

“I beg your pardon!” Once again Trauma was taking over her thoughts, speech and actions.

“”Its true naa or where did you study medicine?

I graduated from the prestigious University of Ibadan, Madam…Nigeria’s premiere University

“Oh please doctor! that has virtually nothing to do with my husband’s comatose state… On a second thought though, I think it has a lot to do with it since you schooled in Nigeria. I mean what good can come out of this country? This was the same hospital I brought my son exactly two years ago and the best you could offer me was his corpse.”

“Mrs. Martins, honestly I’m sorry for your son’s loss but…” She broke down in tears before the young doctor could complete his statement. Her tears tugged at Doctor Don’s heart.

“Please madam you need to get a grip on yourself. Being traumatized his not the way to go right now”

“Doctor, can you just find a treatment that will make him come out of coma as soon as possible and stop this your evil lecture”

“There is no one treatment that can cause someone to come out of coma. We can only prevent further physical and neurological damage.”

“Just do what you have to do!”

**************************************************************************************

It had been 48 hours since a tube had been placed in Martins’ windpipe through his mouth. He had been hooked up to a ventilator to ensure that he wasn’t in immediate danger of dying and yet it didn’t look like he was going to come out of his unconscious state anytime soon, that’s if he will ever come of it.

Aisha was fast asleep on the chair she sat close to Martins when she heard the faint calls of her name like a whisper from an angel who had brought a message from an immortal God. She opened her eyes slowly to find her husband’s eyes dilating, his lips moving, and his hands stretched towards her .

“He’s alive…” Aisha started to say. “He’s..a..live” She stuttered as she stretched her feeble hands to meet his.

Oga Martins and His Kettle of Fishes continues next week…