I’m a doctor who works with mostly poor people living in a very depressed area of Lagos. The hospital I work in is not very expensive and is affordable for the kinds of patients we see. A log of my patients are poorly educated, some are illiterate, but most are polite and respectful.
I had an appointment last week with this woman and her children. Her 3 year old child who she brought to see me was crawling under my desk and doing all sorts of things, and she kept shouting at him but he wasn’t listening. Now as I was asking questions about her son’s health, she just pulls down her top and begins to breastfeed her 1 year old baby she was carrying, without asking or warning or anything. At the same time her son keeps picking up things on my table, throwing them on the floor, crawling on the floor, etc.
Then this lady smells her babys bottom and says she needs to change her diaper, and puts the child on my desk and starts digging through her bag for a diaper. She didn’t say anything to me at all. I was just looking, because in my mind there was no way this woman was going to seriously attempt to do this right here on my desk surrounded text books, forms and other patients files. She then starts to open the diaper, so hurriedly I tel her that this is not possible
that she can’t change the diaper on my desk. She tells me there are people outside. I say that my desk is not a changing table and is full of important documents that I would rather not be covered in germs, and there is a bathroom outside where she can change the child. She looks at me with such rude eyes and says that will get on desk. At this point I tell her that our consultation is over and she should consider seeing another doctor, then she stops opening up the diaper looks up at me and her facial expression says she would like to abuse but she’s also clearly thinking about queue she will have to go through again and then says okay she will go to the bathroom and leaves me with her son, who has now started taking off my shoes. Now my question is why would anyone think it’s okay to change your child’s diaper on your doctors desk? What is wrong with some of these women?

Comments

Comments