We're a fatalist people - otherwise, we would plan for disaster

What you need to know:

  • As soon as Papa Wemba collapsed fellow performers surrounded him, desperate to assist with awfully inadequate life-saving skills.
  • Watching all the videos on Papa Wemba’s collapse on stage, you get the impression that there was no coordinated response to help him. 
  • The tendency to flock around scenes of accidents undermines smooth responses and more often endangers the lives of the victims. 

Rhumba maestro Papa Wemba collapsed and died on stage while performing in Cote d’Ivoire last week. 

As soon as he collapsed, fellow performers surrounded him, desperate to assist with awfully inadequate life-saving skills.

Given all the knowledge, technology and information that exists, could his death have been prevented if people around him had the right training and equipment to administer first aid? 

The paramedic who arrived at the scene seemed clueless. He was unable to take charge of the situation as the band members attempted to raise Papa to his feet. 

This is not how emergencies are handled. Africa must learn to expect the unexpected and plan for it.

A similar scene was repeated a few days later when a building collapsed in Huruma in Nairobi.

There were horrific scenes of injured people being shoved around without regard to the possibility that the “help” could have made a bad situation worse.

Crowds of onlookers swelled, preventing help from reaching the injured.

Africa has no option but to change with the changing culture and lifestyles and plan like any advanced country for a possibility of accidents and sudden illnesses, including cardiac arrest. 

The disease profile has changed, with heart diseases rising especially fast on the continent. What has not changed is how people respond to these increasing cases of sudden cardiac arrests. 

In countries that have similar profiles of disease, there are mechanisms to mitigate heart attack.   

NO DEFIBRILLATOR

These include mandatory training of all high school children on how to resuscitate victims of cardiac arrests, equipping all public places with automated external defibrillators (AED), simply known as defibrillators, which send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm, and training the public on how to respond to emergencies.

Watching all the video clips of Papa Wemba’s collapse on stage, you get the impression that there was no coordinated response to help him. 

What he probably needed most was cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a very basic response that could have been done by any paramedic.   

Instead, everybody crowded around him, effectively suffocating him. Some of his band members hopelessly tried to fan him with their bare hands, in a primeval attempt to assist him.

Africa must learn from this incident. There must be a requirement that large public gatherings must have AEDs, a trained CPR person, who doesn’t necessarily have to be a doctor, and public education on virtually all emergencies.

Further, Africa’s belief in fatalism undermines her resilience to fight death by all means. This is perhaps the reason there are no emergency plans in virtually all aspects of life, including such basics as insurance.

We urgently need to conduct drills on how to respond to medical emergencies and to educate the public on how to behave in different critical situations. 

BYSTANDERS WHO HELP

Many people have died at sports facilities due to sudden cardiac arrest. Instead of planning for such occurrences, most public sports facilities now warn members that it is their responsibility to know their health status before engaging in any exercise. 

This does not help. Apart from scaring people from undertaking much needed exercise, the warnings demonstrate a failure to acknowledge that attacks are sudden and it is economically prudent for such facilities to hire a CPR person and invest in AEDs.

Jeff Walters, in his September 2014 article "The Importance of CPR & AED Safety Training", says:

"Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the United States and Canada, with nearly four out of five cases occurring outside a hospital. Bystanders – whether in a public gathering space such as an airport or shopping mall, or in a workplace – play an important role in improving the chances of survival." 

In one way or another, everyone will at some point be faced with a loved one, a colleague, a friend or just a stranger experiencing sudden cardiac arrest that will demand a fast response.  Every minute counts in this situation.

A majority of modern Africans no longer look after cattle, a lifestyle where the chances of getting a blood clot are next to zero. 

The adoption of Western work habits, where people sit at their desks all day, increases the risk of blood clot formation and subsequently a possibility of cardiac arrest. 

In advanced countries, such health risks are taken seriously and many employees go through CPR training so that there is a critical mass of people with skills to administer life-saving first aid during the critically important initial minutes. 

ADDING SALT TO WOUNDS

These basics, unfortunately, are not taken seriously here in Africa. Even the simplest of first aid kits are never displayed anywhere. 

Even a simple cut often is treated with complicated, rudimentary applications that are more of a hazard to the victim. 

There must be legislation mandating every public place to stock up first aid medicines and equipment to ensure safety.

The public reaction to emergencies in Africa is wanting. This is because there is no regular training and drills to prepare for unexpected events. 

The tendency to flock around scenes of accidents undermines smooth responses and more often endangers the lives of the victims. 

There are standards, for example, on how to handle an accident victim but more often, these victims are mishandled by an ignorant public that ends up adding salt to wounds - literally.

The result is that someone who would have survived an accident ends up dying after being mishandled by the public.  

This is why a reformed education system must incorporate life skills training for all students.

Failure to teach the youth about effective responses to emerging challenges is in effect failing to teach them how to take responsibility for their choices.

We need to move them out of a victim position to become public evangelists on emergency responses, and recognise that people innocently create many of their own challenges when they remain ignorant. 

POOR RESPONSE TIMES

Arguably, the Garissa University College attack would have ended up with fewer deaths if enough youths had undergone some first aid training. 

It is unfortunate that most emergencies in Africa end up tragic. Response times are wanting and the response, when it comes, is never executed well.   

Where else on earth does a bomb explode and hordes of people run towards the explosion without thinking that another bomb may explode in the same vicinity? The public simply needs an education on how to respond to emergencies. 

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. Papa Wemba’s death should spur us to re-evaluate safety measures for people in large public spaces.

Starting mass education in schools and all public facilities would be wise, to create awareness around the dangers of a changing lifestyle that demands new ways of responding to emergencies. 

This is what will lead to a change of attitude towards emergency response in Africa. 

It must be noted that these incidents will continue to rise but before they become a real crisis, Africa must build capacity to confront the eventuality.   

Winston Churchill said:

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

The writer is an associate professor at University of Nairobi’s School of Business. Twitter:@bantigito