When Dr. Ayoade Alakija answered a call at 11:30 p.m. one night, she heard a child’s voice on the other line: “Mommy can’t breathe, mommy can’t breathe.”
In the background, she heard children crying, and understood that their mother Elizabeth was having trouble breathing.
Alakija, a doctor based in Abuja, Nigeria, knew Elizabeth as the wife of one of her staff members.
She sprung into action, making plans for Elizabeth to be immediately transported to a hospital.
- Before treating Elizabeth, the hospital required a deposit of over $1,000.
While Alakija was transferring them the money, she received a text notifying her that Elizabeth had died.
“[Her] four children … [were] sent off to a village to live with relatives, and they will never know the love of a mother,” Alakija told Global Citizen.
“God knows what their chances will be in life — with the oldest becoming a primary [care]giver at 10 years old.”
Elizabeth who died at the height of the 2021 coronavirus Delta wave was not tested for COVID-19 and did not receive an autopsy.
https://glblctzn.co/QKmd3uhUxpb
Her cause of death was attributed to asthma, although it was not a condition she was known to struggle with.
- For Alakija, reminders of broken health care systems amid a global pandemic are everywhere.
“He [Elizabeth’s husband] just greeted me and his eyes are sunken and haunted,” she said, as he copes with the loss of his 37-year-old wife.
- In 2021, Alakija contracted COVID-19 herself and spent 10 weeks in bed.
At one point, she wasn’t sure if she would survive and had a conversation with her husband about what to do in the event of her death.
Nearly a year later, she deals with lingering effects of the virus, including dizziness and vertigo.
During the early months of the pandemic, Alakija was hopeful that global solidarity would help end the pandemic for all, as the richest countries in the world committed to providing vaccines to poorer countries, with the goal of each country vaccinating 70% of their total population by mid-2022.
As of April, the global vaccination rate remains under 60% — and countries like Haiti have only vaccinated 1% of their population.
LTA Work Of Art 