Men and Sudden Death


Dr Uwuma Precious wrote,

All the patients I have seen brought in dead because they "just slumped" have always been men. The past 2 months alone have produced 4 of such cases. All men.

First was in when the cash scarcity had folks queuing for long in malls, etc. A middle aged man slumped in a queue and died. The latest, the 4th was just this past weekend when I got to work and found a crowd at the emergency with a man lying on the floor, dead. The story was that he got out of the mall, the bagged items were beside his beside his corpse, and while buying bananas nearby, slumped and was rushed to our facility where doctor on duty pronounced him dead.

Nobody in the crowd said they knew him. But somehow they had accessed his phone and informed his wife who arrived about an hour later with a 6 year old and another 2 year she backed and started wailing and praying and begging God to bring him back alive because she does not know what to do with the kids or her life. For hours she was crying, hitting the deadman's chest, begging the nurses to "give him something. He cannot die! He wasn't sick! He cannot die! He wasn't sick!"

That is always the case, these men were never "sick." And when relatives arrive, they come with loud prayers and crying, begging God to do somethin. The fact that the dead man was "healthy" the time he left home creates this painful confusion and unbelief in their hearts.

Yesterday an about-to-wed couple arrived and requested for a church-ordered set of investigations, but as it is with our facility the nurses had their vitals checked on first contact and I saw the man's blood pressure was very high. I wrote out the tests for the wife-to-be and when it got to his turn, began a series of questions and counsel. He was obviously irritated. At some point he blotted out that he was there to do a church-ordered test for his coming marriage and saw no reason for the "long talk." I insisted and after we agreed that he should as a matter of urgency commence antihypertensives immediately, this is after he rejected a free 3hr bed rest, he told me, matter of factly that he wasn't going to take any BP drugs.

His reasons were as deadly as the blood pressure I just reconfirmed. He is not hypersensitive, he said. His parents never were and never used those medicines. They were long dead, he said, he cannot say the causes of death, but it was never hypertension, he insisted. At some point the fiancé asked if he was going to take the drug for life, "because I hear that if someone uses BP medicine it is for life."

The problem, as it is with many persons, was that they somehow held this opinion that there is some kind of stigma attached to the use of BP medication. I have seen several instances where patients blatantly refused antihypertensives based on this assumed stigma. Someone tells you, "I no get symptoms of high BP" and when you ask them what the expected symptoms are they'll say, "headache" and when you ask about the headache they complained about the other time you saw them they will say it's was "malaria and typhoid and as I just treat am, the headache too go. This una BP thing no dey correct. One chemist near my house use the electronic one check am and him say e dey normal. But even if e high now, na because I dey think too much these days."

These are dangerously fallacious assumptions.

By the time "high BP" gives you "symptoms" it has already started causing irreversible damages. What you will get next will either be a stroke or a heart attack and you might not come out of either alive or well again. Your family will suffer. Imagine a wife doing chores by 8PM only to receive a call to come to a hospital because the husband that left the house healthy had died. Just like that. It is not something anyone should alllow another go through. I have seen it many times and in no single occasion did the pain seem less. It breaks you down completely and you are not even family.

There is absolutely no stigma attached to taking antihypertensives. If your doctor says you should take, please do. Modify your diet and your lifestyle too. Don't stop your medications because the chemist owner near your house checked and said, "Oga your BP is too low, no dey take the medicine again." Confirm from your doctor.

That your parents "lived up to 99yrs and no get BP" does not grant you immunity from being hypertensive. Your world and theirs aren't the same. The diet and lifestyle are generations apart and these things determine your health in no small way.

Our health seeking behaviour do not seem to mirror our level of education at all. In fact the more educated a person the less likely they seem to follow doctors' instructions. "But doc, I checked it on Google and it says I should be drinking warm water every evening to lower my BP." Google will mislead you when it comes to your health. Your nest bet is your doctor. Where you feel unconvinced, seek a second opinion. From another doctor. Not google. And ask questions. Lots of it. These things will help save your family life-altering pains. Especially for the men.


#C O P I E D !

True talk.

My BP had risen to 200/148 by the time I went to Fire service to check. They used 3 different machines just to confirm because the readings were unbelievable.

They told me I was one step away from slumping dead, heart attack or irreversible stroke and should go to the emergency right away.

I did and found out that vital organs were already being affected.

African men too dey unnecessarily stubborn and the thing dey kill us.

Throughout last year,my BP went from normal to 146/90...I was going to the hospital everyday including my office clinic.

Until I made sure it went back to normal...I rested very well,thought less of Nigeria,money,women,drank less beer and many doctors refused to give me drugs but to monitor the BP very well.

However,I thank God mine reversed to normal.