Lagos, Nigeria
A grieving doctor has recounted the heartbreaking loss of his best friend, who died after suffering a heart attack and struggling to access critical emergency care in Nigeria.
According to him, his friend called around 4 p.m. complaining of severe chest pain and profuse sweating.
Suspecting a heart attack, he immediately advised him to go to the hospital. With the help of a neighbour, the man was rushed to a nearby medical facility.
However, the hospital reportedly did not have an ECG machine, forcing him to be transferred elsewhere for further evaluation.
An ECG later confirmed what the doctor described as a “classic anterior myocardial infarction (heart attack).”
The doctor said he instructed medical personnel to administer Aspirin immediately while arrangements were made to transfer the patient to a teaching hospital.
Shockingly, the facility allegedly did not have Aspirin available.
The patient was eventually taken to the state teaching hospital, where he finally received the medication.
Despite this, the teaching hospital reportedly lacked a functioning cardiac catheterisation laboratory (cath lab), a specialised facility used to perform life-saving procedures for heart attack patients.
As efforts were being made to transfer him to Lagos for advanced treatment, the patient was placed in an ambulance for the approximately five-hour journey.
Tragically, he died in the ambulance about three hours into the trip.
The doctor, who said he had planned to meet his friend in the Netherlands next month, expressed frustration and grief over what he described as systemic failures in healthcare infrastructure.
“How can an entire state not have a functioning cath lab?” he lamented. “Nigeria really did me dirty today. I’m so broken right now.”
