Thursday, September 21, 2017
Hailing our Local Heroes By Rajvinder Pabla, OD, MSc
The right to life is considered an inalienable right. Sadly, close to 700 newborn babies in Nigeria will die every day due to the lack of proper care during and shortly after delivery. With only about a third of births attended by skilled birth attendants, Nigeria’s health care system is in dire need of transformation.
Unfortunately, due to widespread government corruption, lack of public awareness, and little interest from global health organizations, public funds remain inaccessible to the country’s health care sector. This leaves Nigeria’s health care workers thinly spread and rather poorly equipped, especially in rural communities.
An African proverb says, “The best way to eat the elephant standing in your way is to cut it up piece by piece.” One of our very own local doctors chose to tackle neonatal mortality by heading out to Nigeria this year. Dr Richard Oyefeso is a local Board-Certified Pediatrician who practices at the Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville, Ontario. He has practiced medicine internationally and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. While Dr Oyefeso thoroughly enjoys practicing medicine, he is very passionate about giving back to humanity.
This year, Dr Oyefeso spearheaded a training program for health care workers in Nigeria. His project is called 4Breath4Life and its primary objective is to save newborn babies by providing education and life-saving equipment to birth attendants. Dr Oyefeso wants to eradicate neonatal mortality.
Over seventy health care workers, including doctors, nurses, midwives and field health workers participated in a workshop in Lagos, the country’s capital. Health care workers received hands-on training on neonatal resuscitation techniques in an effort to reduce the number of newborns that die each day in the country.
We often forget that training alone is insufficient if the necessary tools and supplies are not put in the hands of frontline workers. To eliminate this barrier to care, Dr Oyefeso personally purchased the necessary neonatal resuscitation equipment for the workshop attendees to take back for use in their own communities.
Two key pieces of equipment, the Ambu Bag with facemask and the Penguin Suction Device are simple instruments that cost close to $65 CAD. Dr Oyefeso’s goal is to ensure every skilled birth attendant is not only adequately trained to use these devices but also has access to this instruments for every birth.
As a society, it is easy to close our eyes to the daily suffering of much of the world’s population. Undoubtedly, individuals like Dr Oyefeso not only bring light to the issues on hand but also take charge and look for solutions to the problems. With each day, 700 lives are lost and through the tireless efforts of individuals like Dr Oyefeso, we can hope to see that number reduced. Dr Oyefeso demonstrates exemplary international citizenship and selfless service to humanity. Thank you, Dr Oyefeso!
To learn more on how you can help, please contact Dr Oyefeso through his Facebook page 4Breath4Life.
- Pabla is an Ontario Optometrist residency trained in Pediatric Eye Care and sits on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association of Optometrists
#givingback #localheroes #Orangeville #4breath4life #childrenshealth
