By Surayya Garba Hassan
As you make your way to the Ante Natal Clinic of Asokoro District Hospital; be you a first timer or a returnee, one of the Nurses, that you will eventually remember or would be asking for, is Matron
Zainab. Why do I say that? Am I being biased because she was a relative of mine or because I have been a recipient of her selfless action as a health care practitioner. Perhaps I am both, as I write this tribute with a grieving heart and also a grateful one.
Matron Zainab, took her oath as a midwife and a humanitarian seriously. She was known as the “go to person” in the ANC department for expecting mothers and their spouses; as she would listen to you,
chastise you for commencing antenatal late if need be, then go out of her way to book you and subsequently help you throughout the journey of pregnancy to delivery and thereafter, immunization.
She did this, with or without making your acquaintance prior to this interaction because she loved utilizing her position as a midwife; to help ease the pressure of navigating the various, mandatory and necessary processes of being treated in the hospital, as ADH is located in a strategic area, where the populace of Asokoro and the neighboring state of Nassarawa are served; thus the high human traffic and the rate of deliveries.
She was right in the heart of it, working with a large number of pregnant women on a daily basis, preparing their delivery packs, educating them on health, hygiene and exercise, motivating them when times were hard, aiding them when they had financial constraints along the way, and also ensuring they had a safe delivery. She was also known in the Paediatrics Department as she would visit there with the precious little ones when they fall ill and one needs the help of someone on the inside. She served in this capacity for over 30 years until she herself became a patient about 8 months ago.
Her fellow nurses and doctors alike rallied around her when she first took ill then, they went over and beyond, to take care of her in her tumultuous journey of declining health until she finally gained her eternal rest on the 12 th of May, 2023. Through it all, she was the same heroine who stood tall and firm for her patients, despite being one them. She fought the good fight, never losing hope of getting better or beating the odds until we lost this rare gem to cancer on that fateful Friday.
I thought being in the medical field should have made me “ok” to seeing new life and death every now and then. Yes, birth is beautiful and death is devastating, both are inevitable and we deliver either news to relatives regularly, I should be used to the norm right? Should I have prepared myself for the outcome of her condition, did I not see the signs, am I not supposed to provide a crying shoulder to
others now? Yes, to all my questions, but then I am human and my heart mourns her loss because she is irreplaceable.
I see her in the corridors and departments of Asokoro District Hospital. She was there for me when I was doing a program as a medical student, then as a graduate making use of the hospital’s library, and also as an expecting mother in the Ante Natal Department, doing blood work up in the Laboratory department, Ultrasound scans in the Radiology department, making payments in the billing departments, labor and delivery in the Post Natal Department, our short stay in the Special Care Baby Unit of the Pediatrics department and through all our Vaccinations plus sourcing for Vaccines not subsidized by the government; in the Immunization Department.
Saying goodbye to you feels surreal “Antin Asokoro” as we fondly called her. I shed countless tears along with countless others as you will be sorely missed. We love you but GOD loves you more, it hurts but it pained us more when we watched you helplessly while you suffered in silence as you endured it. You
have found eternal rest and you are pain free now. The HEROES THAT WE KNOW WEAR CAPES, BUT THOSE IN THE MEDICAL FIELD WHO TAKE CARE OF OUR HEALTH, WEAR WHITE.
Our hero is no more but her memories and good work shall be remembered as those of her predecessors have. You will always be in our hearts and prayers Matron Zainab Mohammed. Please do say a prayer for her.
[To the righteous it will be said], O Tranquil soul!”
Return to your Lord, well pleased with Him and well pleasing to Him. So join My servants, And enter My Paradise. (Quran 89,Verses 27-30) Yours’ Truly Surayya Garba Hassan (Mummy Onize) Surayya Garba Hassan writes in from Abuja.
