Surgical care is one of the many health care services that have been negatively affected by the ongoing global pandemic.
In Nigeria, many sick people who need surgeries have found the costs to be quite prohibitive, thus they are increasingly at risk for developing other complications when they are eventually unable to access the care they need.
Such was the case of Ms. S.O (*name withheld to protect the beneficiary), a university undergraduate living in Maiduguri, Borno State in North-Eastern Nigeria who had suffered from severe abdominal pain.
During the COVID-19 related lockdown in her city, she sought medical care at a hospital and had to be transfused with blood to manage the anemia she had developed.
The local VMC Chapter in Maiduguri met with her in the ward during their hospital visitation outreach, and being moved by her plight and the obvious lack of external support and resources, the team stepped in by taking actions to ensure her speedy recovery. They sponsored her investigations, got her reviewed by a specialist gynecologist, and arranged for the subsequent surgical operation which was done to remove 2 intra-abdominal masses.
They also ensured the routine post-operative investigations and medications were made available to her.
She has since been discharged in good health and is grateful to the VMC for giving her a new lease of life!
Adminn
