MY DAY AT THE HOSPITAL TODAY; HOW CAN WE STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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I woke up this morning, feeling energetic and happy after a previous hectic day. Yesterday was a very busy and task filled day in the hospital as I had a lot of patients to manage with different ailments. I tried so much to smile as much as I could, so my patients could feel better and know they were in safe hands.

I always try to put my Hippocratic oath in practice as the wellbeing of my patient always comes first.
And I believe in anything I do,** I should do no harm.**

"A good doctor, is a doctor that knows the best time to refer," so I try referring patients immediately to the appropriate source, if I know we don't have facility to manage that patient; as you all know, am a Doctor and I practice here in Nigeria in a rural setting.

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Malaria is endemic here, in my country, so most patients present here with this ailment. This was mainly the situation yesterday, so I managed a lot of patients on an outpatient basis.

My patients on admission's general condition were stable so I had to discharge those very stable ones home. Even though the day was hectic, it was worth it as I was fulfilled that my patients were fit and could go home and get better.
But however, I had a patient with acute peptic ulcer (PUD) disease who kept complaining of pain even after giving all analgesics and PUD medications, so when it was time for me to go home, I told the nurse to monitor her and her vital signs closely and I handed over to the doctor on call and went home.

Moving Foward...

This morning, I got to the hospital as usual, with anxiety to see how my patients are faring putting the PUD patient as my priority since she was the one whose condition wasn't stable yesterday. Getting to her bedside today, she was so happy to see me and said "she is doing great" and was stable. I was so happy; this is the joy of the profession, you feel fulfilled when you see your patients get better.

"Then I remembered as a young child how my mother used to tell me that someday I will be a Doctor and save lives, then I smiled."

After my ward rounds, I went to the consultation room to see my patients who were waiting for me in the outpatient department. They started entering the room one after the other and they were satisfied and left the office to get medications.

While waiting for who my next patient was going to be, A heavily pregnant woman walked into my consulting room, with a swollen black eye, swollen mouth, her hair scattered, and her skin was hyperpigmented with red scars and wounds. I looked at her and wondered what must have happened to her, and she looked at me and said she was severely battered by her husband because she asked for money for feeding.

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I was surprised, even though I have seen a lot of patients who have suffered from domestic violence, this one was different because she is about 32weeks pregnant and she is a 26yrs old graduate of mass communication, who is presently pregnant with her first child.
Why will the husband batter her in her present condition, I was devastated but I had to do my job first. So I did all I could to make her stable.

After some hours, I went to monitor her to make sure she was okay.

Then I started discussing with her and she said, she doesn't have a job and was a full-time stay at home wife, so her husband has been taking her for granted. She has been managing to use the little money he gives her without complaining, until this fateful day when she didn't have any money to feed and she asked him for money. All he could do was to batter her and beat the living daylight out of her and left her in the house, helpless, not even with a penny.

Then, I asked about her plans and she said she has none and I felt for her. I just wanted to help her in any little way I could so she can be free.

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Then i asked her:

Do you have a mobile phone and do you subscribe? And she said Yes!
So I told her about steemit, how steemit can make her a better person from the comfort of her home and the benefits she can enjoy as a steemian, she was so excited and she decided to sign up, of which she did there in my presence "although, she hasn't yet been verified yet."

I plan to hold her and help her, in her early journey here on steemit so she won't be discouraged and will see the bright part of life when she starts interacting with other a members of the community and also to keep her busy.
She was very excited to know a community like steemit exists.

Am so happy to have made someone know about steemit and its benefit.

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I also helped her with a little money to pay her bills since she didn't have any money and also some token to feed as she hadn't eaten on arrival in the hospital.

So my question!

This woman could be anyone of us, it could be someone's child or someone's sister:

How do we fight Domestic violence?

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What can we do to stop violence towards women?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Meanwhile, am a steemian who derives pleasure in giving help to those in need especially in the aspect of health. Am so happy to be a part of this wonderful community.

How about checking my other posts; you might just find something of interest to you:

Fate Of Our Health

My Life as a Doctor in a Developing Country

TWO (2) SYLLABLE WORDS THAT HAVE POSITIVE EFFECT ON OUR HEALTH

How Job stress affects our health

THE GOLD FISH IN STEEMIT, CANT BELIEVE THIS @ASAPERS

Combining steemit and work:

Being a steemian is great, I am so happy to be a part of this great platform. Combining steemit and work presently, is a great thing for me, because I can now strive to make some extra income to assist me in helping those patients in need, so they Dont loose their lifes because they couldn't afford the health system.

In the nearest future, I hope to be able to build up a charity foundation (which i have started in my own little way) and create awareness on the poor utility of health services in this environment all due to financial constraint.

And also:

I cant end this write up without appreciating @hitmeasap who gave me a 100SP delegation as a way of paying it forward and made me a part of the @asapers.

Thanks to @insideoutlet who has been the backbone of the @asapers

Thanks to @ sander-lacerda, @ocd, @demotruk (who delegated 5SP to me) and all other members of the @asapers team.
Lastly, thanks to all those who have my early journey here on steemit worthwhile.

Thanks for reading till the end.