By ABDULHAMID BABATUNDE
I was introduced to him by my friend and brother, Inuwa Abdulkadir Esq., Magatakarda Babba, during a discussion on my most recent health challenge of prolonged dazing spells of dizziness, particularly while lying down on bed and turning or trying to get up. So intense were these head-spinning experiences that I “actually” saw my room spinning around me and felt my bed jerked into rollercoaster mode in an alarmingly disorienting manner for up to a minute, leaving me panicstricken and sweating profusely!
It was like no other illness in the way it seized only the visual and perceptive portals, leaving the body to suff er the weird eff ects of an illusionary phenomenon – in reality none of the spinning and tumbling experience was taking place. I was already an outpatient at the National Ear (Nose and Th roat) Centre, Kaduna to which I was earlier referred by my family doctor, Dr Anyebe. I was initially puzzled by the reference to an ear hospital for dizziness until the young doctor I met at the centre explained the marvelous role of the ear as the repository of the organ of balance, the semi-circular canals in the inner ear that represent the “brain-box” that maintains our bodily balance to enable us stand without toppling and move in a steady and stable manner.
Th e malady making me so miserable and terribly traumatized was caused by a disturbance of the liquid-fi lled canal by displaced calcium particles naturally positioned in the inner ear, which then trigger the sensors in the canal to send signals of corresponding ripples of disorder to the motherboard in the brain, that now recreates the dizzying visuals and feelings I described.
Th e initial treatment for what turned out to be vertigo was not adequate enough and this what I was explaining to Magatakarda when he informed me that the Medical Director of the National Ear Care Centre, now late Dr Aminu Bakare, was a friend and he promptly gave me his number to link up. Th at was the beginning of my very rewarding relationship with Dr Bakari, a relationship that not only ended my misery and helplessness in dealing with the mind-bending and shock-inducing ordeal with dizziness but seamlessly switched from doctor-patient to friendly and brotherly rapport.
Remarkably, we were opportune to meet and exchange pleasantries, intending to meet again after the Sallah break in his offi ce to discuss helping with some write-ups for more public awareness of the vast areas of health challenges treated at the centre unknown to the general public. On his last Friday, we met outside a bank in Kaduna as he spotted me walking by while he waited anonymously in a small crowd around the ATM machines.
Hardly expecting to see him there, plus the fact that I only met him once before on my fi rst appointment at the outpatient clinic, because he had to refer me by phone to one of his amiable and able woman doctors on my recent two visits due to other commitments, I did not immediately recognize him until he humorously recalled our vertigo bond. Th en we broke into a hearty bonhomie, cheerfully recalling my experience and how his calm and reassuring counsel as well as the intriguing bed exercises involving peculiar head manouvres, miraculously ended the dizzy ordeal. Alas, as we shook hands to part, we could not have imagined that we had parted to meet no more! And what a memorable parting it turned out to be with a mutual appreciation of his accomplishment and my relief and satisfaction, sealed with a bond of friendship and brotherhood for the rest of time.
Dr Bakari was an exemplary human being with his unassuming sense of humanitarian professionalism and humane simplicity in interacting with everyday people like me. Th e way he fi rst attended to me in the midst of his colleagues and students, imparting knowledge bereft of status snobbery reassuringly soothed my frayed nerves and calmed my panicky disposition while also giving practical demonstration of the do-ityourself treatment exercise for the benefi t of patients, subordinates and students.
He even told me I was in the exalted company of President Muhammadu Buhari in the discomforting dimension of ear-related ailments perhaps as a sort of placebo to further boost my sunken morale! Dr Bakari evidently touched so many lives with his exemplary humane approach to delivering the dividends of his specialized profession, especially in routinely joining his colleagues at the outpatient clinic on Mondays to share his experience and expertise with the students and interns who surrounded him as he attended to patients from all walks of life with effi cacious simplicity.
Few could have known and fewer still would have imagined that Bakari was an associate professor and ear, nose and throat surgeon at ABU, Zaria who additionally pioneered the management that saw to the successful and sustained establishment and operation of the fi rst National Ear Care Centre which now stands as the permanent edifi ce of testimony to his unique and meritorious contribution to the advancement and delivery of specialized health services to the majority of thousands of common patients that have found relief and cure under his watch throughout his years as medical director.
Th e centre should befi ttingly be named after him to capture his distinguished stride in service to humanity. Dr Bakari ended well, leaving this world in the process of performing ablution for purifi cation prior to the Magrib prayer at dusk, as the sun set on the horizon and on his lifetime on earth, for the eternal transition and journey of spiritual return to Allah, Our Almighty and Most Supreme Creator, from Whom we all came and to Whom we shall all return at our appointed time. May Almighty Allah forgive him his frailties and rest his gentle and humble soul in AlJanat Firdausi, amen. To his family I say: Jaumirawo faralunu mo lahira mako, feununu mo bawo mako! Babatunde, a media consultant, wrote from Kaduna.
