The Untold Challenges of Being a Paramedic in Nigeria: A Personal Story

Practicing as a Paramedic in a developing country like Nigeria comes with a whole lot of challenges, responsibilities, stigmatization and a need to continuously educate the public on emergency medical services.
I can vividly remember one of my patient transports in 2023 and all the drama that ensued.
It was a lovely Sunday morning and I was dispatched to transfer a 7-month-old child who was intubated (a tube passed into the airway to assist respiration) from one hospital to another.
I arrived at the pickup hospital and went in to review my patient. Before I could start my review, a loud, firm voice came out of nowhere;
“Hello, who are you?”
I greeted and introduced myself.

The following conversation took place:
Person: Are you aware of the case at hand? This is a critical care transport and I won’t tolerate any mistake.
Me: You have nothing to worry about, I’m capable of this and that is why I was dispatched.
Person: I don’t want to take chances; I will appoint a Doctor and a Nurse to go with you in the ambulance.
I decided to keep quiet to prevent heightening the existing “tension” in the air.

(I will later find out that this “person” was the Medica Director of the hospital)

Oh, did I mention that there was no transport ventilator and we had to move the patient from the second floor down to the vehicle without an elevator?

I knew what my assignment was and I wasn’t going to let anybody’s comment distract me.

So, I took charge. I started bagging (using an ambubag to ventilate) the patient and got him down in less than 3 minutes.
My ambulance was already set up and the switch was quite seamless.

At this point, I could see something on the faces of the Doctor and Nurse….”Ok, who is this guy?”

10 minutes on the transport, sometime amazing happened.
I noticed that the Nurse and Doctor were acting drowsy.
“Did these guys do overnight shift and are just sleeping?”, I thought to myself.
After a few seconds, I noticed that they were not just drowsy but were about to pass out!!

Boom!!! I had 3 patients.
Ahhhhh!!!
Wahala!!!

They were apparently having severe motion sickness. I quickly administered a medication and kept focusing on my primary patient.

We arrived at the hospital shortly after. Baby’s vitals were stable but my other 2 patients were still in recovery.

As I moved the patient out, I was pleasantly surprised to see the hospital’s MD again. Apparently, my MD had to ride along with her behind the ambulance just to reassure her that all was well.

On seeing her team, there was a blank look on her face.

lol

She came up to me and apologized about our initial (1-sided) conversation and decided to get to know more about me and Paramedics.

Trust me! I am always excited to educate people especially other medical professionals on what the current emergency medical service landscape is like in Nigeria and how we are working hard to build a global standard emergency medical service in Nigeria.

We have stayed in touch since then and I am glad I left a positive impression on her mind.
The journey is still long but I am positive we are going to achieve our goal.

I will keep preaching the good news of Paramedics to all who care to listen. We will make it!!

I am Joseph Alao and I am a proud Paramedic working to build a functional emergency medical service in Nigeria!

Joseph Alao is a Paramedic Instructor with about a decade of experience in the field.