Sodiq Ojuroungbe
A medical expert, Dr Temitope Okunola, has raised concern over the growing number of patients now presenting with liver or kidney failure.
The senior registrar at the Department of Family Medicine in Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, said lately, patients often arrive at the hospital with no symptoms, only to discover that they have severe organ damage that could have been prevented if they had come to presented earlier.
He said this on Saturday at a preventive health initiative organised by the old student association of Ojokoro High School, held at the school’s premises in the Ijaye area of Lagos State.
According to him, the patients present when the condition has become critical, when little or nothing can be done,” adding, “Many of the cases we are seeing in LUTH are people who have already had kidney damage and liver problems before coming to the hospital,” he noted.
The physician attributed the increasing cases of liver and kidney damage to many factors, including self-medication and abuse of herbal concoctions.
He lamented that many patients come to the hospital after taking various unregulated or untested herbal concoctions for a variety of conditions like chronic pain, diabetes, and hypertension.
The physician noted that these remedies can cause serious harm, stressing that self-medication, or taking medications without a doctor’s prescription is a major contributor to organ damage.
Okunola reiterated the need to only take medications under the supervision of a medical professional, adding that there is a need for people to realise that visiting the hospital regularly is a strategy to prevent certain diseases and should be seen as normal.
He added, “Hospitals should not be seen as a place for only the sick. Coming regularly for checkups will help detect certain diseases early, among others.
“High Blood Pressure is a silent killer and a lot of people have died because of it. People need to check their BP at least once in three months to ascertain if it is high. It is not until you are sick that you go to the hospital.
“We have these cases and an increase of people with damaged vital organs because a lot of people are not aware of the danger involved in the things they take.
“We have people indulging in drugs, ingesting some things like herbal contortions, which they are not supposed to take without a prescription. They feel that, oh, this thing has been working for me, let me continue to take it.
“With that, we are putting our body in danger because the body has organs that control some things in our body. For example, the liver and kidneys have some functions they do in the body. The heart has functions too. So, when we are taking all these drugs, they have some chemicals inside them that can put our health in danger.
“When we take them for over a long period, they will begin to cause damage to the heart, kidney, or liver. And the effect, when it comes up, will put the person in danger, and can also cut the lifespan of the person short.
“Some people will say; ‘oh, I’ve never been in the hospital for the past 20 years’. No, it’s not an achievement! You come to the hospital when you don’t have any complaints. That is even the best time to come to the hospital; when you don’t have any complaints.”
Speaking also, the president of the old student association, Chris Okhumale explained that the health initiative was meant to check the BP and sugar levels of members, teachers and residents of neighbouring communities.
He said that drugs and mosquito nets would be given to beneficiaries, while people with extreme cases would be referred to the nearby hospital for further screening and treatment.
“This programme is not a one-off thing; it will continue to happen periodically. So in the next three to six months, we’ll be looking for another programme on this health initiative.
“So, those that never have the opportunity to partake in this, they will have the opportunity to still come again in the next three to six months and partake in it. And for those that have come, we will also have an opportunity to monitor them and see how far they have gone.
“Although some of them will be referred to very close hospitals because the team of doctors that come from the LUTH have a close relationship with some hospitals around here. So they can always keep in touch,” he stated.
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