Death of Dr. Faycal: the negligence of too much
Twenty-eight hours ago, a 30-year-old doctor died in unworthy conditions, which posed extremely difficult questions. Assigned to Poli in the department of Faro, infested region of snakes, Dr. Fayçal would have succumbed to a bite due to lack of suitable technical plateau available on the spot.
When you think about it, should a doctor be assigned to Poli? I already hear the supposedly unstoppable argument of narrow preachers, who will hammer that the populations of Poli like the others need doctors. Precisely, it would be once too much to guarantee the placing of the plows before the oxen. Without calling into question the right to care for the populations of Poli or any other region of Cameroon, let us remember that the doctor is not the only guarantor of the health of the populations. It is only one link in the chain. What could our colleague have done for a patient who would have been bitten in his place? Nothing. Faced with this snake, what were the chances of survival of our colleague? As much as those of the locals, that is to say none.
How can we not rely on fate when we are parachuted so far from everything, and lack the minimum? Because it is the minimum in this region, to have antivenom serum and resuscitation measures to associate with it.
It is not a snake that killed our colleague, but our pseudo health system, more than wobbly, where eminent brains nestled in the affluent offices of the central services limit themselves to assigning doctors to dispensaries in all corners of the country. As a well-founded solution to all the problems of the local population. It is recalled that “the physician must practice his profession in the conditions allowing him the regular use of an installation and the technical means necessary for the practice of his art” > (Article 10 of Decree No. 83-166 of 12 April 1983 on the Code of ethics of doctors).
A man died, voluntary to practice his profession certainly, but not suicidal. Did he imagine just how much he was putting his own life in danger by going in good faith to save the world with his stethoscope as the only weapon? How, once aware of the risks involved, would one not be tempted to shelter by expatriation like so many others?
There are many of us who want to do well. But what is the will worth without the means? Without infrastructure or equipment? Without social protection? Without appropriate health policy? All these failures inexorably reduce the physicians to play the illusionists.
This tragic and absurd disappearance is an opportunity to exhort all practitioners to take care of themselves; Subscribe to a health insurance, vaccinate yourself, protect yourself, rest, and more … Because a living doctor is always better for himself, his family, and the populations, than a doctor who is dead Rash as he was.
Be cautious as temerity may well be the leading cause of death among Cameroon’s doctors.
VANK
06 November 2014
