By Anthony Ada Abraham
Nollywood actor, Charles Okocha is about the luckiest person on earth, and very grateful to James Louis Okoye, an event manager and chief executive of Jalou Events Limited, who twice helped to save his life.
Okocha’s incredible run of goodluck began on December 27, when a drunken policeman pumped a fusillade of bullets from an AK47 rifle into his stomach at a traditional wedding ceremony, held in Uruagu, Nnewi, Anambra State. The hail of bullets also hit another person, Sam Belonwu Dim, a Lagos-based businessman, who died on the spot.
Doctors at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Anambra State performed surgery on him, but the stomach later burst, allegedly because the wrong surgical material was used. But the prompt and cool-headed reaction of Okoye in the hospital once again saved the actor’s life.
The twice lucky actor is now recuperating following the corrective surgery that was still done at NAUTH, though the tertiary hospital debunked the allegation of improper handling of the case.
According to reports, Okoye, who mobilized other people to save the actor’s life, recounted what transpired on the fateful day: “I am not just worried but I’m mad about what happened as we tried to save Okocha’s life.
Okoye immediately got some people to help him carry the actor to the primary school where his car was parked. Continuing the tale, he said: “With two other guys accompanying me, we sped to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi. But what we experienced was a nightmare. Okocha was crying, ‘Please help me, I don’t want to die, Jesus help me.’
At the hospital, the conduct of the nurses and doctors was so annoying. The other people who helped to bring the actor to the hospital were angry and started shouting at the medical personnel. I told my friends that making trouble or even shouting at them could make our friend Charles to die unattended to. I had to beg the nurses and all that. They were just telling us, go here, go there, sign for this, sign for that. I was obediently doing all that even faster than they expected.
“It was over two hours and thirty minutes before the doctor that was to conduct the surgery came. Then I was told to go and sign approval for transfusion of blood. I told them to check if my blood could match his, and said that I was willing to donate blood to save his life. They said it would take longer time, that they already had blood in their bank. But they said what they had in their blood bank would have to pass through test one, two and three for HIV/AIDS. They said they were waiting to do the last one. For the fact that the case was urgent, they said that if I had no objections, I could sign that I approved for them to use the one they were not very sure of being HIV free. They said they are waiting for the last confirmatory test that the blood was HIV-free.
“I don’t want to mention how many people that gave up as I was waiting on the same night as I was at the emergency unit. I don’t want to talk about an accident victim brought in there and was not treated because those who brought him could not pay N500 for him. And I had to pay for him. I am not talking about another accident victim who was brought in that night and what a nurse could only say was, ‘Imagine the kind of alcohol smell that is coming from his mouth, look at what he has done to himself,’ while the guy was bleeding profusely,” Okoye said.
Even after the surgery had been done, it was as if the devil was still determined to harvest the actor. More trouble came his way after he returned to the hospital to have the external stitches removed. What happened immediately after the stitches were removed was shocking, as Okocha further narrated.
His words: “He was just sitting down and all of a sudden we heard a noise like a balloon burst. Behold, everything in Okocha’s stomach came out. You know it was a major operation. Nurses rushed over, looked at him and ran away. Anybody who looked at his dangling intestines could not behold the sight. It was a gory sight. But Okocha was courageous enough to hold his intestines from dropping on the ground and he turned his face away from his hands so that he would not faint at the sight of his own intestines coming out.
“After about 25 minutes the so-called surgeon came in again. He went back to start all over and Charles began to go through the pains he had a few days ago. It was an annoying thing. When they came to the ward they said openly that they were supposed to have used nylon three for the stitching but what was available was nylon one and they had to use what they had at least to save his life that day. Why I am angry is that they could have told us to rally round and get the right material and any other thing they needed.
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