THE INNOCENT WITCH : THE WOES OF HYPERTENSION

Sphygmomanometer: A Blood Pressure checking Kit

Please this is not a fictional story, it's my life experience, highlighting the silent killing Power of hypertension

In my place, whenever a person died suddenly, especially if they died in their sleep. It was believed a witch, an evil spirit or ghost slapped him/her.

This was the sad tale of my late father; Please do not get too emotional about this short story that you fail to get the pertinent information I attempt to pass, for if we could turn back the hands of time, maybe my father would still be alive.

Daddy was an active, agile man, tall, ebony, handsome man whom every woman would want to have around, if not for anything, at least just to be noticed around him, he was an eye catching young man with so much life and enthusiasm, at 21 he had already enrolled in the Nigerian Immigration Service, a Force he rose steadily to the rank of Superintendent if Immigration, was he comfortable? No that wasn't even the right word, He was wealthy!

While I was still few months old, he was already a very successful man, happily married to my mother, with three of us(myself and siblings). Then he went for a promotion course in Ghana, where the "who is who" in African Immigration Service were in attendance, it was a massive opportunity for him to have gotten better in his chosen profession.

Nigerian Immigration Service Officers On Parade

He was three months into his one year course, when one day after dinner, a knock came heavily on our wooden parlour door kpom kpom kpom,

"madam good evening are you you Mrs. Rosemary A... "

He was cut short by mom's interruption "yes I am" she shot back almost immediately. The sad, cold news was broken in few seconds, my father was dead, died in his sleep and in few days, was flown into Nigeria by Nigerian Airways

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Immediately after the burial, a woman in the village was summoned, she was accused of witchcraft and for killing my dad, she denied and wept bitterly, she was ostracised and subtly excommunicated by family members and villagers, she lived to remember that day all her life, she was even threatened to a point she accepted she did it, till she died people thought her a witch.

But what did we find out later?

In his luggage we found anti-hypertension drugs, including a testing apparatus, he died of high blood pressure, maybe he ignored his medications for a while due to his busy schedule at the Course he went for, we cried out our eyes, but it didn't bring him back, so we decided that in every way we can, we must talk about hypertension and it's danger.

This is one of the reasons I ventured into healthcare, so I let people know what they needed to know.

Hypertension is a silent killer because it has no clinical manifestations or symptoms, it is most times asymptomatic except for occasional headaches, life can be sniffed out of the patient even without a slight headache nor fever.

A blood pressure of 120 over 80
(120/80) is the ideal blood pressure for healthy people. At this level, we have a much lower risk of heart disease or stroke. If your blood pressure is above 120/80mmHg, you may need to take concrete actions to check or lower it. Avoiding cholesterol rich meals is necessary, also regular exercising and checking of weight as the risk is increased in obbesed or people with over weight.

The witch was innocent, she didn't kill my dad, hypertension did!! 😭😭

Photo source : pixabay.com and facebook.com

(Word count : 633)