Lust & Love (The enemy within) - Season 1 - Episode 12

Episode 4 years ago

Lust & Love (The enemy within) - Season 1 - Episode 12

I no longer have the courage neither the inner power to argue with my father in-law. He was getting at something, but I wasn’t sure what it is. A lot of thoughts crossed my mind but the willingness to cross the Ts and dot the Is for him was no longer there, I decided to leave the rest to him and let him take me to the conclusion of things. He asked me ‘Ben, which hospital do you know around that we can visit, one that you trust but you have not been to with Andral?’. The hospital that came to my mind was the one beside the hotel I have been staying for almost 6 weeks now; the hotel is not that far from my house.

I told my father in-law the hospital name and location of the hospital and he told me to hand over my car keys to Tunde while we ride in his own car with Tunde driving mine right behind us. We got to the hospital not sure what this visit about my chest pain has to do with the whole saga. Anyways I was finally able to speak with a doctor. I complained about the pain in my chest, series of tests were carried out; we had to wait for almost an hour. Eventually the test result came out, I was summoned in by the doctor but my father in-law requested to be present- he wanted to see things for himself. The doctor confirmed that what I was experiencing was in fact a heart attack!

I wasn’t sure how to react to the news, I am a young man in my mid thirties, I don’t drink, smoke and I exercise regularly, except for recent weeks mainly because I had to make do with staying in a hotel for the time being, so the news of me having a heart attack took me aback for a while.

I was about to start asking questions about what treatment to undergo but my father in-law was faster ‘Doctor, for a young man like Ben, what do you think could have caused this?’ the doctor went on and on about how stress, body neglect, bad diet habit and the likes can cause such but he kept emphasizing on the fact that I am still too young to be having a sickness like this. Then my father in-law posed a question ‘but erm…..doctor…..what if a significant quantity of a drug that contains Calcium Gluconate is been introduced into the body system gradually and consistently, can it induce this as well?’. The doctor was taken aback! He looked at me as if requesting a permission to answer the question, meanwhile I was looking at him with keen interest on what he was about to say. He adjusted himself a little bit in his chair, feigned a cough as if trying to clear his throat and then he replied ‘well calcium gluconate is a drug that is usually used to reduce excess potassium……’ ‘doctor cut all that medical jargons out, we are already aware of that, just answer the question’ my father in-law cuts in, I was also becoming a little agitated, I wanted to get to the root of this conversation as soon as possible so I encouraged the doctor ‘please go ahead and answer the question, whatever you say ends in this room’ he look at me as if trying to read the expression on my face, he nodded and continued ‘well if a lethal dose of the drug is introduced to the body by infusion, it could initiate lethal electrolytic imbalances that may disturb the normal levels of sodium, potassium and chloride in the body’s cells. These electrolyte imbalances interfere with and slow the heart to dangerously low levels, eventually creating a heart attack and consequently death within minutes especially when combined with potassium phosphate, and if there is no prior knowledge that the drug was introduced into that body, it can be very hard to detect even by the very best Medical Practitioner………but if it is introduced through food, it needs to be introduced consistently over a period of time, this way, the perpetrator cannot be suspected because signs of a heart attack will have been manifesting gradually before the final demise of the person, that is why those two drugs are proscribed in some countries of the world’.


My father in-laws looks at me like ‘I pity you’, he thanked the doctor for his incite and probed further ‘the doc, can you now with this pre knowledge determine if there is a trace of the drug in Ben’s body?’ the doctor affirmed that it can be done but will cost a lot, my father in-law gave him the assurance that money wasn’t the problem and gave the go ahead for the doctor to carry on with the test.

Believe me, I wasn’t sure I wanted to pull through with this test, I mean- imagine you sitting in a hospital and the question they are about to ask is ‘life or death?’- that’s how I was feeling. I was more nervous about this test than I would if it were a HIV AIDS test.

Somehow I managed to stay calm, go through with the test and the result confirmed my worst fear, I -as a matter of fact- have some quantity of Calcium Gluconate in my system……………..