•What experts say about stroke
IKEMBA Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu aged with grace and dignity. As a soldier in the Nigerian Army and as a Biafran warlord, he enjoyed a stable health.
However, his health began to wane in July 2007. It was the major health scare he ever had. It happened at the thanksgiving mass of his god-son, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State at the Basillica of the Holy Trinity in Onitsha. During the service he collapsed.
He was said to have slumped at about 11:30am.
It was one of the officiating ministers who delivered the homily, Justin Cardinal Regali of Philadelphia along with the Red Cross and other medical personnel at the premises that revived him. Rather than return home, he opted to remain in the church, insisting he had the strength tosit through the service. After the programme, he was taken to Waterside Hospital in Onitsha. Since then it as one visit or another to the hospital.
In 2010, he stayed in the hospital for about seven months receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
Last December, Odumegwu-Ojukwu he was diagnosed with cerebral vascular accident which is commonly known as a stroke.
He was flown out of the country to London in an air ambulance within days for advanced treatment in a world class medical facility.
It was clear that doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, where he received treatment for four days could no longer handle his case.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu was then being attended to by experts to save his life.
A reliable source, said the doctors at the hospital where he was flown to, identified his age as a barrier to his recovery.
After his discharge from the hospital, he was taken to a rehabilitation centre where he had physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions in readiness for his return to Nigeria.
But that was not to be, as he finally bowed to death yesterday at the age of 78.
Former Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State Branch, Dr Adedamola Dada identified hypertension, poorly controlled diabetes, obesity as predisposing factors that trigger strokes.
He said a stroke can be hemorrhagic or ischemic, with the former occuring when a weakened blood vessel ruptures while the latter occurs when a blood vessel is blocked usually by a blood clot. “The blood clot automatically stops blood from brain, and brain cells suffer from lack of nutrients and oxygen that they would normally get in ischemic stroke,” he added.
On age as a cause, he said: “Age is not part of the factors that cause stroke.”
A Senior Medical Officer and a General Practitioner (GP), Dr Tajudeen Salau said Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s age might not really be the predisposing factor. “Why? Younger people who are not of his age may come down with stroke,” he added.