Of Salt, Onions, and God's Direct Involvement!

We had known for quite some time that Jide, our driver, almost lost his wife, Iyabo, when she was full term with their firstborn child more than 22 years ago. This week he gave us more details and told us that the doctors never had answers for the reason she had struggled. Well, I just couldn't let that sit so I googled it and found out some amazing pieces of information. Details follow:

She was 19 years old and within her last week of pregnancy when she started acting like she was not feeling well. She told Jide it was nothing. They went to bed but he did not sleep. He watched his wife. In the wee hours of the morning she got up and he followed her. Basically, he describes the sequence of events as though he lost her many times.

First, she apparently passed out. Her body was limp and didn't respond at all. Then she went into something he calls convulsions. Her teeth were clenched. Jide frantically fought her, forcing his fist into her mouth, forcing water and salt and smooshed up onions into her mouth. She made some noise like she was trying to speak -- this gave him renewed hope.

They were living with Jide's uncle at the time so Jide got his uncle to help. They tried to carry her to a medical hospital. It was not easy. As they were packing her, sometimes she would have a new seizure and at those times her body fought Jide with amazing strength! The first hospital refused her because they said she was dead and they weren't a mortuary. In the course of events, she had more seizures and Jide forced his hand into her mouth other times with water, salt, and onions.

They carried Iyabo to another location -- I'm not sure where. She was not responding. His uncle was exhausted, the other relatives who had gathered were exhausted and weeping hysterically. Jide's wife was limp. The family covered her with a cloth and told Jide that she and the baby she was carrying were dead. Jide went to see her and just kept, as he says, "tinking and tinking!" She would not respond. He sat outside the room in which she was hidden under the cloth. The family started making preparations for the burial. (Her family is Muslim and, therefore, believe in a fast burial.) Jide remained disturbed, troubled, and just kept tinking. It didn't seem right to him.

He snuck back into the room and uncovered her body again. He leaned his ear against her face and tried to listen for signs of life. One more time he stuffed his hand into her mouth. This time he shoved his fist down into her throat. Her body shook and she began to vomit.

Hollering for help from his uncle one more time, Jide lifted her again and he and his uncle carried her again-limp body to another hospital. Family members who had assembled contributed whatever money they had so that she could gain admission at the hospital.

At the hospital, within a couple of hours, they C-sectioned and Iyabo delivered a fragile baby boy. The doctors didn't have much hope that either would survive. They began giving some medications. The quick conclusion to the long story -- mom and son were in the hospital for 6 months! When one improved, the other worsened. Iyabo's parents and Jide had to sign a document indicating that they would accept responsibility for the baby, Samuel's, death (and possible murder charges) in order for the hospital to be willing to release Samuel. It was Jide's only option, he says, because his son was only weakening with the poor care he was receiving.

Back at home, the family gave Samuel traditional medicines and the baby quickly began to recover. Upon a subsequent visit by the hospital staff -- required by law because they were so sure the baby would die -- Jide said that the staff insisted this was not even the same baby. I'm not sure how Jide convinced the staff but they were, ultimately, satisfied. It was then that they asked Jide's family to teach them what medicines they had used!

But, that part of the story doesn't bring us any answers. No doctors could ever explain what might have caused Jide's wife to have the complications. That's where the internet comes in.

I did a search on Merck's Manual to find seizures in pregnancy. This could be another long story but the key points are: the search lead me to "preeclampsia and eclampsia" which follows from serious hypertension. Hypertension is a major killer in Nigeria and ... yes, Jide said that Iyabo had struggled with it. It appears that eclampsia can cause seizures, especially in mothers under the age of 20. Mmmmmmmm ... I'm no doctor but that was starting to look like it could be a lead. We'll never know for sure but it was making some sense to me. Then I read about the treatment -- get this -- saline solution and sulfates. So ... salt -- okay, got that ... I looked up the chemical content of onions --- sheesh all sorts of sulfates/oxidized sulfides, etc.

Why did Jide grab those items when his wife went into convulsions? He'd seen his father do that for others having seizures.

So, here we were 22+ years after the incident -- celebrating the life of Iyabo and Samuel and the other four children that Jide and Iyabo have since added to the family. And we gave God the glory for putting these ideas into Jide's mind -- water, salt, and onions -- in a time of panic!!! And we thanked God for giving Jide the determination to not give up even when those around him were planning a burial.