Terminal Ailments Patients Can Live Normal Lives -Doctor

Patients with terminal ailments can live normal lives if their pain is properly managed, says Dr Olaitan Soyanwo, of the Centre for Palliative Care, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

Soyanwo made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja recently.

“When you are facing a serious illness, you need relief from the pain and other symptoms, such as fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite and shortness of breath.

“You need to better understand your condition and choices for care; you need to improve your ability to tolerate medical treatments in living normal life,” she said.

She explained that the issue of relieving pain for life-threatening ailments was important, because there was the need to focus more on management of patients than the routine hospital treatment.

Soyanwo stated that the process of palliative care in medicine could be carried out in patients with the use of analgesics in ensuring that these patients live normally, even when they know that they are going to die.

She said that with proper awareness on pain-relieving medicines, Nigerians would see the need to be positive when faced with terminal ailments like cancers and AIDS.

“When a person is terminally ill, they are very aware that their declining health is leading them towards death.

“They face this fact every second of their lives, starting with the moment they find out they are afflicted with a terminal illness.

“No matter how nonchalant they may appear to be, inside they are going through many emotions, it is up to the use of palliative care to relief the grief,” she said.

Soyanwo called on government at all levels to create awareness on palliative medicine as such could reduce the total number of patients in the hospitals.

According to her, it has been observed that the main problem in palliative care was the issue of procurement and distribution of analgesics, and also in the proper training of medical personnel on its administration.

She said that could be achieved when there was a budgeted fund for procuring analgesics, and called on all stakeholders to ensure that political leaders do not only pay lip service to health issues in the country.

Our Correspondent reports that palliative care medicine has been used in developed countries to provide comfort and special care for persons whose diseases cannot be cured. It, however, does not hasten or delay death.