One Alpha Bah, a resident of Banjulinding has expressed concern over what he refers to as the “negligence” of drivers on the road as well as nurses and doctors in hospitals, a behaviour he said pisses him off.
The 30-year-old was giving an account of a recent incident that happened in Lamin, on 21 March 2023 where he volunteered to escort to the hospital a bleeding man who got hit by a car.
“With the victim bleeding from his mouth, they needed an escort to the hospital but the traffic officer on duty was engaged in another accident case at Abuko. So, I volunteered to escort him to save his life or try saving his life,” Bah told this medium.
While on the ambulance going to Kanifing Hospital from Banjulinding Clinic, the young man said he was angered by the drivers who paid deaf ears to the ambulance.
“The ambulance’s siren was on but the drivers were ignoring us as if they didn’t hear the siren at all. What really pissed me off, was one driver that we passed at Abuko on his phone – on the fast lane.
“The siren was on, but this guy did not even notice us. The ambulance has to drive him. I was pissed and the ambulance driver told me that was the least of his encounters on the highway,” he said.
The “negligence” of nurses and doctors at the hospital is another thing Alpha Bah is so much concerned about. He believes that alone can worsen the conditions of emergency patients.
“Just when we arrived at kanifing hospital with an emergency victim, [there were] one doctor and four nurses, [but] none of them could attend to this dying man for more than 30 minutes. I was on my toes wiping his blood from his mouth, so he does not choke to death,” Alpha Bah said.
According to him, the nurses were doing “absolutely nothing but taking notes of God knows what”.
“I said to myself something has to be done. I don’t know exactly how to change things, but I will start from somewhere,” Alpha, who says he is concerned about the safety of everyone said.
For Alpha, respect for the siren of an ambulance is the safety of everyone; and negligence of emergency patients by nurses and doctors has the potential of affecting everyone.
