Ad·mi·ra·ble ˈadmərəbəl/ adjective arousing or deserving respect and approval
At just 27 years old, an outstanding young woman named Dr. Ola Orekunrin is changing the world, step by step. Motivated by a tragic event, Orekunrin decided to make a difference for people who are unable to help themselves. When she was studying to be a doctor in England, her twelve-year-old sister was in Nigeria visiting relatives. While there, her sister fell severely ill and desperately needed immediate medical attention. The local hospital wasn’t equipped to handle her situation since it was caused by sickle-cell anemia, a blood-related disease passed down through families. The only facility in the region that had the proper tools for her sister’s situation was too distant to reach in time, and so her sister sadly passed away.
“It was really a devastating time for me and I started thinking about whether I should be in England talking about healthcare in Africa, or I should be in Africa dealing with healthcare and trying to do something about it,” Orekunrin said.
She made the life-changing decision to leave behind her high-paying job and comfortable lifestyle so she could travel to Africa to try and improve medical care. After visiting other developing countries in order to learn the ropes, Orekunrin packed up her things and made her way to Nigeria. When she got there, there was a very noticeable problem: There were only 2-3 equipped, sanitary hospitals, and sometimes those hospitals were up to a 4-day trip away from the people that needed aid. Despite many people living relatively near a hospital, most of the time the local hospitals couldn’t handle their afflictions. Additionally, the transpiration system in place was very poor, so even getting the patients to the hospital was difficult. After doing her research, Orekunrin had a stroke of brilliance; she decided to set up the first air ambulance service in West Africa called “Flying Doctors Nigeria”. According to their website:
“Flying Doctors Nigeria (FDN) Limited is a Medical Emergency Service that specializes in air ambulances, medevac, medico-logistics services, remote site medical solutions services, medical infrastructural development and medical training services. With a Head Office at the International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, Flying Doctors Nigeria operates stations manned by specially trained medical doctors across the country from where real-time responses are effected. This is to ensure high quality medical solutions to meet all requirements.”
This program has been going on for 3 years now and has air-lifted about 500 patients. Not only has she accomplished this, but Ola had already graduated from the University of New York as a fully qualified MD at just 21 years old. What’s more, she’s also a trained pilot! Truly an outstanding achievement for a woman so young. Orekunrin said that her goals for the future are not only to continue improving the transportation method to hospitals, but to also focus on the treatment the patients get before and during their hospital visit. She says that a lot of national and international attention is on the treatment of infectious diseases, but Nigeria and other developing countries have problems with trauma wounds, too, like falls, gunshot wounds, stab wounds, etc. Orekunrin says that while in the UK, she would see a gunshot victim every 3-4 years, but in Nigeria, she’d see one every 3-4 days. People like Dr. Ola Orekunrin are changing the world every day just by following their passions. Orekunrin turned her deep passion for medicine and the people of West Africa into an amazing project that has saved countless lives. She is living proof that along with the right support, you, too, can change the world — even if it’s not the whole world, but at least somebody’s world.
Main source: CNN