Not By Stature: Celebrating Dr Oluwadara Ola- Oluranti


By

Ayodele Awojobi

Few days after I started my Housemanship in Lantoro, our ‘CMAC’, Dr Arifalo introduced me to Dr Ola who was also an Ife graduate! The connection was spontaneous. Great Ifẹ̀!

I wasn’t in her unit that time so most of our communications were outside the walls of consulting rooms, Theatre sessions and ward rounds but things changed later.

On a weekend call at Lantoro at OPD, we were on call together and so it was the turn of one man to see her. The man into the consulting room, came out and said ‘Please, where is the Doctor to see me?’ The Matron was like ‘that’s her waiting to see you’. The guy said ‘Shey Dr kékeré yẹn?’ ‘Oga, not by stature oh, wọ́n mọ isẹ oh’ (she sabi book). The Matron was spot on! Dr Ola is brilliant!

During my O and G posting in 2018, I had cause to work closely with her in the unit. She was our SR. My Chief doesn’t take nonsense from anyone! One Wednesday afternoon around 3pm, we had a case of CS and we didn’t want to delay it for those on call at 4pm. I had the responsibility of preparing the patient for surgery. She told me ‘Àwóò, make sure you ‘palpate’ the blood before you call me for this patient’. ‘Kò burú Chief’ was my response.

So I headed to the labour ward to get the patient ready. The Nurses were doing their stuffs for the patient and I asked one of them for the blood and she said ‘Dr Awojobi, the blood is ready, let’s go to the theater. The patient is ready’. I believed her! I didn’t inspect the blood not to talk of palpate it!

So I informed my Chief and we met in the theater. We were already in the suite, getting the patient ready when she asked ‘Awoo, where is the blood?’ Like Eve turned to the serpent in the garden of Eden, I turned to the Nurse, ‘Matron, wey blood?’ It was there I knew I was in trouble. The Nurse said ‘The blood is still in the bank, they’ve not finished the grouping and cross matching’. See wàhálà!

‘Awoo, you are a senior Doctor in this hospital, what nonsense is this? Didn’t I tell you to see that blood was ready before you called me? You are not serious and I’m very angry!!’ I couldn’t defend myself for the fear of extra call. Did I even need to defend anything? To even say sorry Chief sef was difficult. I just stood there. Surgery was delayed but blood eventually came.

Aunty Dara as we fondly call her knows her onions. She has her stuffs at spinal levels. When it comes to performing surgeries, she sabi am wella! She’s always ready to work and teach. Working in any O and G, you have to choose your words carefully before it is termed as something else. 😂😂

Dr Oludara Ola-Oluwaranti
Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day ma. May God continue to grant all your heart desires in Jesus name. Thanks for all you do.

Blessings and Godspeed

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