Killing of Children with Celebral Palsy on the Increase, Says Group
Paul Obi in Abuja
A group, the SEEDOO Initiative for children with special needs, has raised the alarm over the increasing spate of killing of children with Celebral Palsy in the country.
Celebral palsy is a congenital impairment that leads to brain damage or partial development of the brain, which often result to breakdown of the nerves and their functions.
Founder of the group, Mrs. Kawan Aondofa Anjira told journalists in Abuja that high cases of killing of children with celebral palsy remain on the increase, she called for drastic action by government to protect such children’s rights.
She said: “Children born with celebral palsy deserve the right to life, because these kids are being killed everyday. They deserve the right to education; look at the classrooms, most of the classrooms cannot take these children, they also deserve the right to good health.”
Citing an example, Anjira explained that Tersoo’s story was amazing. He was born with some delayed development. The family believed Tersoo was not a human being. When we heard about Tersoo we got him and to the glory of God Tersoo is walking. He is the only child in the centre that can walk.
“That’s the reason we’re partnering with the Ministry of Health and national human rights. We are awakening them to these responsibilities. We are calling them to do the needful, to give us the environment that will lead the children to live normal lives,” she said.
Chairman, Board of Trustees, Yes Kids Development Initiative, Barrister Gabriel Iorsase said efforts were on to provide educational needs of children with celebral palsy. “We want to draw the attention of government to what needs to be done for the kids, especially while in school. We try to look at the curriculum for the schools and we are of the view that much, much more needs to be done to address the need of the class of this category of children.”
Meanwhile, a visiting Professor of Pharmacology, Nagasaki University, Japan Assoand Prof. Omotuyi Olaposi, said medical errors in Nigeria appears to be one of the main contributory factor to increasing cases of deaths in hospitals across the country.
Stating this at a two-day seminar on medical services and simulation organised by Medbridge Global Company Simulation, Director, Centre for Bio-Computing and Drug Development, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Ondo State, he said; “Medical errors is unfortunately a very big heath challenge in Nigeria, medical errors have a lot of dimensions. The first dimension is what is called misdiagnosis. That is when people are diagnosed wrongly and that means the chances of treating the person is almost zero.
“The second dimension is when donators diagnose right but the wrong drugs and medications are administered. You got the ailment right, but the wrong treatment is given. The third is when you get the diagnosis right, get the right drugs to administer but you administer the drugs improperly, probably due to insufficient trainings or exposure. So these three are very important in terms of how people eventually die in our hospitals in Nigeria.”
Speaking on wrong diagnosis of persons, Olaposi explained it is only in high profile persons that the public get to know.
“It was just because Dora Akunyili happens to be a celebrity, that was why we knew what exactly happened. A lot of people die without even knowing it. The family will just accept it as the will of God and they just move on. Nobody is questioned and nothing whatsoever.
The Chief Executive Officer, Medbridge Global Company Simulation, Modupe Olowodahunsi, said the essence of the conference was to draw attention to critical need of simulation in healthcare service delivery.
Olowodahunsi maintained that for Nigeria to meet global standards in health care service, simulation and provision of standardised healthcare infrastructure must be attained in order to scale up the nation’s health care system.
