A Nigerian doctor in Coleraine has spoken of how an Irish connection first inspired his vocation in healthcare.
Working at the Causeway Hospital for the last two years in general medicine, Dr Christian Oko (33) also told the Irish News how deprivation in his home country led him to start a children’s charity.
“I was born in a rural community in Nigeria, there’s over 230 million people in the country with a very poor health system – one of the poorest in the world,” he said.
Recent estimates from the World Health Organization state there are four doctors per 10,000 patients in Nigeria – well below the 1:600 recommendation.
“I was inspired to do medicine because growing up, people were dying around me.
“Child mortality was high. We had a big hospital in my community, which was set up by some reverend sisters.
“I went there one day and saw it was run by Irish doctors – The Medical Missionaries of Mary.”
Founded in Nigeria in 1937 by Co Dublin native Mother
Mary Martin, the organisaton of Catholic women work to provide healthcare in the areas of greatest need around the world.
“They came to Nigeria in the 1930s, building the hospital in the 1950s. When Nigeria had civil war for three years, 1967-70, they didn’t go back to Ireland,” said Christian.
“Most of them were doctors, nurses – and they stayed in my community saving lots of people during the war.
“Some of them died in Nigeria and are still in the burial ground around the hospital.
“As a young boy growing up in college, I read about what they did for my community.”
This included Sr Deirdre Twomey who passed away in Drogheda in 2022, an obstetrician who worked in Nigeria for 50 years and saved the lives of thousands of women and their babies.
“There’s lots of people named Deirdre after her – male and female – that’s the level of impact that Irish people had in Nigeria and my community. I was inspired,” said Christian.
“I thought to myself ‘you have to grow up to be a doctor so you can do what these ladies have done in your community.”
Starting medical school in 2008 with a scholarship to pay his fees, Christian suffered a stroke in his final year after a road traffic accident which left him in a coma for seven days.
He said the experience only strengthened his resolve to become a doctor.
Early in his career, Christian also recalled the painful experience of being unable to save the life of a five-year-old girl in 2017.
At the time, he was one of two resident doctors serving a population of 120,000 people in the Bayelsa State area.
“One evening, I was called to the emergency unit of the health centre to behold a five -year-old girl who was brought in as very weak, very pale and very ill,” he wrote on his charity website.
Severely anaemic and testing high for malaria, she only managed to tell him: “I want to go.”
With the facility lacking a supply of blood, he had quickly asked for a living donor.
“Just before someone could be bled, she died in my arms. It was a very sad experience,” he said.
“I later learnt that many children died the same way.”
Visiting a fisherman camp where the girl had lived, he found the conditions meant many children were dying needlessly from malaria.
Setting up the Healthy and Smart Children foundation the following year, his team worked to deliver medical outreach and vaccinations for which he later received an award from the Nigerian President for community impact.
A UK scholarship to study for a masters in leadership and community prompted a move to to Birmingham in 2019, before the memory of the Irish doctors in Nigeria encouraged another move to Ireland.
This included a visit to some of the retired MMM ladies in Drogheda, many of them now in their 80s.
“I had a good chat with them, they could remember my country so well and they could speak my native language,” he said.
“They told me lots of stories about the war. I was so excited to be with them, they were so happy that someone from where they worked as young ladies could come back and say thank you to them.
“I visited the graveyard of those who had died and said thank you to them for all the great work they did in Nigeria.”
With the option to practice medicine in Northern Ireland, he started working in Coleraine two years ago.
“I started working in Causeway medicine, practicing with my whole heart,” he said.
“It was so lovely. The love was so warm, just like the welcome the sisters had.”
Work for his foundation continued, including fundraising efforts – to which Christian contributes half of his own salary – to fund surgery for around 100 children in Nigeria.
Currently working towards registering with charity commission in Northern Ireland, he is hoping to raise more money for projects like clean drinking water in schools.
“We are growing the charity and have lots of projects, but it’s exciting to think that the inspiration for it all came from the Irish people in my country.”
He calls the Northern Ireland health service “excellent,” despite the widely publicised pressures in recent months.
“People may not appreciate it so much, but to know you can get free healthcare with doctors and nurses on the ground, medication and investigations,” he said.
“It’s not so in my country. You have to pay out of pocket, the insurance covers about 10% of the population.
“So a majority of people have to be out of pocket. Income wage is very little, as low as £33 per month so people can’t buy medication for themselves.
“The people in Causeway are also lovely people. A big thing I appreciate is the relationship between health workers and patients.
“Everyone works towards making the patient comfortable. The mental care is high quality as well as for the body.
“You don’t find the same level of commitment in my country, so the NHS really is excellent.”
Asked about last summer’s race-fuelled riots in Belfast and beyond, where international health workers faced intimidation, Christian said he never experienced any negativity.
“I think everyone has to accommodate each other and work together in love,” he said.
On life in the north coast, as well as discovering the beaches of Portrush and the Giant’s Causeway, he said: “I love the Irish people, it just seems like a community of love and warmth.
“There’s not many black people here, but everyone just wants to know how I’m doing, how was work today.
“I think the love and care here is amazing. I came here to work for just one month, but now I want to stay.”
Further information about Christian’s charity work can be found at healthysmartchildren.org