ISMAIL Sodiq, a 9-year-old boy, fell while playing football with his friend and sustained a fracture of his left arm. He was taken to a traditional bone setter for prompt care. But after a week, seeing that he was pale and very ill, he was taken to the hospital.
Ismail’s left arm was swollen, dark in colour, and had multiple wounds that brought out fluid and caused a loss of sense of touch. He had also developed other complications that left his mother worried he might die merely because of a fall.
The eight-year-old Oladejo Abdulmalik injury was from an injury inflicted by his brother’s friend. He was hit with a filled cylinder of liquid gas in retaliation for a quarrel earlier in the day. His shoulder was badly affected, and based on the advice of people in the neighbourhood, he was taken to a bone setter in their community.
Unfortunately, days after the bone setter had tried to help, he was rushed to the hospital when the pain in the limb was unbearable and the boy was unable to play, eat, or even sleep. He was also pale, and his swollen arm was deformed and darkish in colour.
Segun Adeyemi is a 5-year-old with an amputated right hand following a fall. In a suburb of Ibadan, where he lives with his parents and siblings, he fell while climbing a tree trunk, and a traditional bone setter attended to his fracture.
His mom, Mrs. Latifa Adeyemi recounting her experience, declared, “Maybe my child’s hand would not have been amputated if we had not moved to a new site in Ayegun, a suburb of Ibadan.”
The traditional bone setter’s attention was drawn to the boy’s swollen hands despite the treatment, his pain, and his almost lifeless fingers.
“He said the limbs would recover and that I should not worry. But my boy had stopped playing and was always crying because of the terrible pain and the swollen arm. That was the reason we took him to UCH, Ibadan,” said Mrs Adeyemi.
It is not a good sight to behold seeing these children in the children’s ward of the University College Hospital.
Mrs Saliu Fadeke, a clinical nursing officer, said mismanagement of children with fractures by traditional bone setters is a big problem.
“As some are discharged, some other children with fractured limbs that would end up being amputated have been admitted.
“Imagine a 10-month-old baby that is left in the care of the uncle. The baby had crawled to stand on a bench. It fell on her and was taken to the traditional bone setters. By the time the child came to UCH, Ibadan’s rotten limb had to be amputated to save her life. Everybody, no doubt, including mothers and healthcare workers, has a role in stopping cases like this,” added Mrs Fadeke.
Dr Michael Okunola, a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma at University College Hospital, Ibadan, however, declared that fractures that occur in children are mostly due to falls.
“For children, what usually happens is that maybe in school they were playing, they were on a swing, or they were running up and down in the classroom, and then they fell and sustained injuries. Most of the time, it is the upper limb that is commonly affected in children.
“They may have a minor injury to the elbow or a simple fracture. It does not take much to treat them; just do an X-ray and then apply a POP cast to the limb. In a few weeks, they are done with treatment. That is usually history.
However, Dr Okunola said that most often, they are counselled by bystanders, friends, or relatives to take them to traditional bone setters.
“They end up with complications. When they eventually come to us, the limbs are rotten, and the patients are dying. The only thing that we can do to save their lives is to remove the gangerous or dead limbs,” he declared.
Dr Ajibola Oladiran, head of the orthopaedic and trauma department at the hospital, described limb amputations in children earlier attended to by traditional bone setters because they were mismanaged as both a menace and a disaster.
“I remember about 2 or 3 years ago that I had a 9-week-old child who needed to have the entire right hand removed from the shoulder. The child during delivery had sustained an injury; the arm was a bit weak, and some quacks put on a tight POP cast. The entire arm became gangerous; that is dead.
“Before, the reason was ignorance and culture; now it is a problem of cost because healthcare is expensive, people are cash strapped, and many people are of the opinion that traditional bone setters are cheaper, but on the long run, it is not so.”
According to him, although payment is in installments, they end up paying more in the long run, and this is aside from the cost they may incur from having to treat any complication of the fracture that may occur, including loss of a limb.
Dr Okunola, however, warned that “when the splint is too tight, it cuts off the blood supply to the limb. So, the limb begins to swell, and the patient begins to feel more pain than necessary, even after medication. That is an indication that they need to see the right specialist for treatment.”