Every once in a while, I binge on whole seasons of TV series – sometimes to my own detriment. Lately, I’m binging on medical drama series, Private Practice. There’s this scene in Season 2 where a neo-natal surgeon (I didn’t know what this is until now) is asked to come and perform a Caesarean Section (how are these related to Caesar?) on a comatose patient.
I did a google search and found that this happens frequently around the world – its not by any means common but it happens often – even in Kenya. Maybe this is generally no big deal in this day and age, but well, the woman in question had been comatose for her whole pregnancy – she had an accident the day after she discovered she was pregnant and was rendered brain-dead.
Here’s the thing: the hospital kept her alive and well all through her pregnancy, knowing that she would not wake up ever – so that she would give birth. I wonder when this will be common place in Africa. I recognise that its not just the science that has to develop but our outlook as well – culturally, women in this instance would be considered dead and a foetus at that level would not be considered a factor in telling the family to say their goodbyes.
I wonder when this will be something that women in Africa take for granted.