Diabetes: I was once misdiagnosed –Lagos deputy governor

The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, has disclosed that he was once a victim of a wrong medical diagnosis on Monday.

Misdiagnosis is a situation where a doctor wrongly diagnosed a patient that has one health challenge with another condition that they don’t have.

Hamzat, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the unveiling of the Duchess Royal Medical Check-Up in collaboration with Lagos Marriott Hotel, Ikeja, spoke extensively on medical tourism and early detection of diseases through regular check-ups.

The deputy governor told the audience that a foreign doctor had once diagnosed him with diabetes after he went to him with a complaint of strange rashes on his body.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

“Actually, I had no reason to doubt him because my family has a history of diabetes. My father was also diabetic,” he said.

Continuing, Hamzat said that he was shocked when another doctor at Reddington Hospital ran another test on him and gave him a clean bill of health.

The physician who read the situation well told him that his rashes had no link to diabetes.

“I won’t blame the first doctor. He wasn’t actually wrong with his medical observation. He just didn’t know the Sub Saharan African environment well enough to understand my ailment,” he said.

Hamzat, an engineer by profession, also announced that the state government plans to develop a Medical Park to make the state a medical tourism hub and attract tourists from Togo, Ghana, Benin and other neighbouring African countries.

He expressed concerns that Nigerians are spending an enormous amount on medical tourism which may ultimately affect the country’s Gross Domestic Product if not checked.

According to him, about $1.2 billion (approximately N576 billion) is lost to medical tourism in Nigeria annually.

“The health sector in our country has over the years struggled to ensure quality in the delivery of health care services and led to mistrust on the part of the population.
“This mistrust opened a whole new market for medical tourism, which is also called health tourism and basically refers to international travel for the purpose of receiving medical care,” he said.

In his presentation, a notable interventional cardiologist and Chairman, Duchess Cardiac Centre, Prof. Kamar Adeleke, also expressed worry that Nigeria’s lifestyle is beginning to mirror what people see abroad.

He observed that a considerable number of Nigerians are shying away from exercise and regular medical check-ups.

“Sadly, we now have people who will rather drive from their bathroom to the bedroom,” he said.

Adeleke emphasised that it is not out of place for people to routinely ask their doctors what ‘their numbers’ are whenever they turn up for tests like blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Okwuego/PHW