A family friend of mine has been really sick for about a week now. The moment she complained of certain symptoms, I just knew what was wrong with her because of how prevalent that disease is in this district and the experience I have in handling patients with such symptoms or diseases.
So I told her the exact hospital to go to. She didn’t listen. She went to a different hospital and got diagnosed with a different condition. When she told me, I doubted but couldn’t say much because she didn’t go to the hospital I recommended.
I doubted because in Ghana, everything is business. The way people overcharge students for school fees in private institutions and still underdeliver is the same way private hospitals and clinics also behave.
They just diagnose you with “big words” and just put you on bed rest for days just to make sure you go home with a really high hospital bill. Just like I said, she came home with a high bill. I was even shocked when I saw the kind of drugs given to her. But then what could I say? She didn’t listen to me in the first place.
Just yesterday, she called me to inform me her stomach was really hurting to the extent that she had to sit on the bare floor on her way to the market. I was a little scared for her because of how she narrated the whole incident.
She was later rushed to a nearby clinic, where she was diagnosed with the disease I suspected in the beginning. When she came back home from the clinic, I mustered courage to ask her why she didn’t go to the health facility I showed her. I’m saying I mustered courage because I felt like it wasn’t my business to know why she did what she did. But after considering our relationship, I just went ahead and asked.
You know what she said? Her boyfriend asked her to do all that she did. From going to a different hospital and all. I only nodded my head and proceeded to the next question I had in mind. Is he a health personnel, or did he say that due to a recommendation from a health personnel? You know what she said? “No”.
I then said it’s fine since he later went to the health facility with her. Guess what? He never did. I just stood there silent, looking at her and trying to understand why she would put her health in danger for someone who wouldn’t even bother to be present in the first place.
I know love is powerful, but I didn’t know that people literally choose their health over love. Even when that love isn’t helping them in any way. Wow! So cool. Yes, so cool. What else should I say? I wish them nothing but the best in their relationship.
Images are mine
