Meanwhile back home, Chinedu had immediately begun his own plans to start his relocation to the USA as he had promised Michael that he would join him in the USA as soon as possible. One of his colleagues had told him about an agent that could help with processing of a work permit to USA and he decided to try them out, “I’ve not used them yet, I just saved their contact details for when I’m ready” his colleague had told him, “their fees are very high so I’m saving up till I can afford to pay them” the colleague added, “how much are their fees?” Chinedu had asked, “a whooping 10million naira” his colleague replied, “10 whaat?” Chinedu screamed, “are they going to pay for my flight ticket too?” He asked, “of course not” the colleague had replied, “10 million naira is just the deposit, you still need to pay a balance of 5 million when you get to the USA” the colleague said, “That is ridiculous” he replied, he knew he couldn’t afford it but decided he would do everything within his power to make sure that he got the money.
He contacted the agent and they provided an office address for him to meet them. It was a small office space in a shopping plaza. The agent had told him that if he could pay the money within a week, they would process a job offer and work permit for him in less than a month. “Amazing!” Chinedu had exclaimed at the thought of being able to travel to the USA in a month’s time, he had decided that since he was only going to wait for a month, he could afford to sell his car to pay the fees, after all, it was just one month of using public transport that he had to endure. He was entitled to a significant discount on plane tickets since he worked at a ticketing office,so coming up with the money to pay for his flight would be easy, and there was no need to have any savings since he was going to start working right away, he would just squat with Michael till he was able to get a place of his own. It seemed like he had everything perfectly planned out. “This is even better than going on any nonsense scholarship” he thought laughing to himself, “wait till Michael hears this” he chuckled.
***
The ambulance arrived at the airport within minutes and Michael was rushed to the hospital, upon checking his vital signs, the nurse reported that he had an elevated blood pressure, elevated respiratory rate and a rapid, irregular pulse. Blood samples were immediately taken and they passed a urinary catheter to collect his urine. A urinary catheter is a rubber tube that is passed into the urethra to collect urine from a patient. It is usually used in patients who are bedridden or immobile for example, patients who just had a surgery and are not able to go to the toilet on their own or unconscious patients. It is also used to measure urine output. He was immediately stabilised, his urine sample was found to contain cocaine which raised a high index of suspicion for cocaine intoxication. Cocaine intoxication is an overdose of cocaine resulting in undesirable or negative side effects, some of symptoms include an increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased respiratory rate and seizures just like Michael was experiencing , it could also lead to a heart attack, coma and even death.
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The doctors decided to do an abdominal x-ray which revealed wraps of cocaine in his bowel. One of the wraps of cocaine that Michael had ingested had burst leading to the symptoms that he was having. He had to be rushed to the theatre so the wraps of cocaine could be immediately extracted from his bowels. The good news is that the surgery was successful, unfortunately, Michael had to be reported to the police because he had committed a crime. He woke up a few hours still very tired and weak but also confused at the same time. “Where am I?” he thought, opening his eyes and looking around, he seemed to be in an unfamiliar place, he had no idea where he was, “this is not my room” he thought to himself, “what is happening?” He wondered, as he attempted to sit up only to find a policeman sitting beside him with one of his hands cuffed to the bed.
“Who are you?” he shouted, getting agitated, then he noticed that he was on a hospital bed connected to different monitors. Suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to be on a flight to the USA but instead he found himself handcuffed to a hospital bed, “why am I here? ” he asked, looking at his body in amazement as he was wearing hospital clothes, “take it easy Sir. You’re at the hospital” the policeman replied standing up and pressing the call button on the wall to alert the nurses that he was awake. “Why do I have a handcuff on my hand?” Michael asked, his heart was already beating faster, “I’ll wait for your doctors to arrive, they will be in the best position to advise on if it’s appropriate to discuss that now. For now, please just relax” the policeman advised.
There was no need for answers, slowly his memory came back and he recollected that he was about to board a flight before he started to feel funny. Everything came back to him, how he had swallowed wraps of cocaine before leaving Nigeria and how he had completed the first half of the trip successfully and was just about to embark on the second half before getting caught. “I’m finished” Michael thought finally realising that he had been caught, “I can’t spend the rest of my life in prison, I need to find a way to escape” he thought, stealing a glance at the policeman who was watching him like a hawk.
Find out what happens next in episode 29 #checkwithdoctoro
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