By Vincent Kalu
When you mention Otulu, a section of Ebem Ohafia community in Abia State, what readily comes to people’s mind is Kalu Nwoke’s orthopaedic home. Even though there is a federal government college in the same area, the name, Kalu Nwoke still outshines it in describing Otulu.
This orthopaedic home has operated for about 70 years in the area, and has restored hopes for those who thought they would not walk again or use their arms as a result of mostly automobile accidents. The founder of the home, Chief Kalu Nwoke died in 2004, but his son, Ochi has continued and taken the centre a notch higher in treating and handling bones and bone-related cases. Today, reading and interpreting x-ray films of human bones in any part of the human body is just a little thing before him.
Ochi, who joined his father in the business in 1972, told Saturday Sun, how he has sustained the trade and taken it higher after the death of his father in 2004. He informed that their patients come to the facility from every part of the old Eastern Region.
According to him, his father wasn’t born into the trade, neither did he pass through any apprenticeship or tutelage. He disclosed that his father’s knowledge of the trade came as a result of love and kindness he showered on a particular woman. Bone mending and treatment, he said, ran in the family of this woman. To reciprocate the gestures, this woman showed Chief Kalu Nwoke all the leaves, herbs and other ingredients for treating any human bone related problem.
How it all started
“One evening, on an Nkwo (Igbo) market day, my father was returning home riding his bicycle when school pupils were going from house to house cleaning and clearing dirty places. As expected, he saw them and slowed down, as some of them were playing on the road. Somehow, one pushed another towards the bicycle. The young boy’s leg was eventually fractured.
“The boy’s parents brought him and abandoned him in our house, and insisted that he must be whole or that heavens would fall. The boy was taken to a female relation of my father for treatment. However, when her husband returned from the farm, he reprimanded his wife and threatened to kill her if she ever touched the boy again. So, the boy was brought back to our house.
“Now, there’s this woman who was coming from Edda in Ebonyi State to treat people who had bone problems. My father went to see the woman and they agreed that she would be coming to treat the boy. Mind you, the boy had been abandoned in our house; my mother was taking care of him. So this woman would come, and by the time she was leaving, my father would give her wrapper or money outside the amount of money that was agreed on for her services.
“She completed the treatment, the boy’s leg was restored, and he was returned to his parents. This woman told my father that she wanted to teach him how to treat bone condition, but my father objected, saying it would make him not to concentrate on his farm work. The next day she came, she pressurized my father to allow her show her the roots, herbs and other things to handle every bone condition. She emphatically told my father that the trade ran in their family for generations and they were not to pass it over to outsiders. But she said because of the love and kindness he showed on her while she was coming to treat the boy, she would break the family protocol or secret and show my father the leaves and roots.
“However, my father was still giving excuses. But she said: ‘I would show you. It is for you to use it or not.’ That was how she showed everything to my father.
“In the course of time, somebody in the community was injured, which affected his bones. People rushed to my father because they heard the woman showed him how to treat bone matters, but he refused to attend to the injured man whether out of fear, naivety or what. But after much persuasion, he summoned courage and attended to the man and his bones were mended. This was between 75 and 80 years ago.”
Change of baton
On how he developed interest in this traditional orthopaedic medicine, Ochi said he was quite close to his father and was always watching whatever the old man did.
“When children are growing up in a family, there is always one who is closer to the father and takes passionate interest in what the father does – trade, occupation or whatever. Because he or she is also very close to the father, the man would start asking him to do certain things or sending him or her on errands in relation to the trade, business or vocation.
“That was how I acquired the knowledge; as he was preparing the herbal medicine as well as attending to the patients, he would ask me to pay attention. However, there was none of his children he forbade from learning what he was doing. Some kept away because of the errand that he would subject them to. Most days that we didn’t go to school, he would ask me to follow him to the farm and from there; he started showing me the leaves, the roots and the formulae.”
Like a conventional hospital, the home has an outpatient and inpatient departments. There are about 20 beds in the different wards. His work schedule begins about 7.30 am with a ward round before going to the consulting room to attend to outpatients, who are given tally numbers sometimes or they sit on four wooden benches in a wide corridor in order of their arrival. After he is through attending to one, he rings a bell for the next parson to come in.
He is busy from morning to evening. As he may tries to rest, a call would come in announcing the arrival of a new patient. He doesn’t compromise the work with his church service every Sunday morning.
His successor
On how he was going to transfer the knowledge to his children, Ochi said his first son has been developing some keen interest, adding that he, Ochi had been showing the young man all the leaves and roots that he needed to know. He said there were a few items he was keeping to his chest, as the preparation of some of the drugs required some process. He said it was in 1972 that his father showed him fully everything he needed to know, and they started working together until he died 2004.
According to him, by the time his son who has graduated from the university and is about to go for his National Youth Service is through, he would show him everything about the trade.
“Like I was with my father in the same consulting room attending to patients, so he would be with me on one side of the room, while I would be on the other side. So, I wouldn’t want him to go away from here.
“Even though I read x-ray results, most times I don’t need it because when I touch any part of the body, if there is any bone problem, I would know. We only send a patient to go for x-ray if he or she wants to know the progress or level of healing of his or her bone.”
Exploits
A woman from Ozu Abam in Arochukwu LGA, Abia State told Saturday Sun that she never knew she would walk again after surviving a fatal accident with her baby. According to her, she and the baby, who she was still breastfeeding, were the survivors in an accident that claimed five lives more than a year ago. She said she had multiple fractures on one of the legs. She said, she was admitted in this orthopaedic home and after many months, she was discharged and now comes from her house to receive treatment.
Ochi added: “There were many instances where orthodox orthopaedic hospitals have recommended amputation of either the legs or hands as the only option for the patients, but they were brought here and their legs or arms were mended and restored; they are walking with their two legs and working with their arms.
“While you were waiting, the fair in complexion woman with crutches came all the way from Eket in Akwa Ibom. The hospital told her that amputation was the only option, but some people directed her here. After treatment, she is now walking with the aid of crutches. In the next few months, she would drop them.
“Our patients come from every part of South-East and South-South. There was a Catholic Monsignor, Amafile, who was on the bed for long and couldn’t stand. He said one night, God told him to go to Ohafia for treatment and he asked why and where? Then, he remembered when he was at a seminary in Ohafia, he broke his arm and there was an old man that mended the broken bone. He called somebody to find out about that old man, he was told that the man had long passed away and his son had taken over him.
“I didn’t know the person who later gave him my number. He called and introduced himself and said he would be coming. He arrived and because of his stature, two able bodied men helped him to climb the step. I examined him and found out that the problem was from the spine. I started treating him. After some weeks, he called and told me that had been able to walk down from his living room to the sitting on the ground floor. He called again that he was walking round the field. He later recovered fully.
“During the COVID-19 period, he came to appreciate me. The next time he came, he brought rice, tomatoes paste, cooking oil and N15, 000. He said the items were just appreciation as there was nothing he could give me that will amount to what I did for him. He informed me that many people who have collected my phone number would overwhelm or inundate here.
“According to him, members of the parishes where he stopped going to celebrate mass because of the problem were amazed the day they saw him, and they asked how come about this miracle?
“He told them where he went. Like he said, many Catholics have been coming here from different parts of Igbo land. A woman from Ugwueke village who had been to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, was told that her problem would only be corrected through surgery, which could only be done abroad because there was no facility for it here. Through this Reverend Father, she came here and got well. Last Christmas, she came to appreciate me with big tubers of yam, a bag of rice and N50, 000. I expressed surprise, but she said that I didn’t know what I had done for her. She said their Nnewi people don’t just appreciate only once; that she was yet to come. They have been coming and been receiving treatment and getting well. Recently, three Catholic monks from Enugu and Awka were here and they got well. I keep receiving calls telling me that somebody introduced them to me.”
He also spoke on some of the dos and don’ts of his herbal mixtures for bone setting.
He said: “When you are undergoing the herbal hot steam; you are not to take injection. In the morning, before you put it on fire, you must have washed your hands. For the cream, when you apply it, it is advisable that you not should not bathe with soap on that day until the next day.