HealthScapades #13 | Adolescents Get Wahala | 19.09.2024
by Tayo Fasuan
I was about to start writing this episode of HealthScapades within my church auditorium when Wale, one of the youths in my church, where we had been having a youth retreat for the past 7 days, rushed inside and called me. Wande, one of the retreat participants, was having a wild fit of seizures.
Of course, I panicked. I rushed to the female hostel and, together with her mates, brought her outside to first apply first aid and later rush her to the hospital. However, with the help of Mummy Oyin, another health worker present, we were able to stabilise her after deciphering what was wrong with her through questioning her and her available hostel mates.
Obviously, Wande was an addicted consumer of Fearless, the popular energy drink, an ulcer patient, and she seemed to also be self-medicating. Her fit during the evening was due to the fact she hadn’t eaten all day because she was picky with food and had downed a bottle of Fearless early that day on an empty stomach. Her body obviously revolted against such treatment, and here we were.
Young people! I just tire.
It’s been barely a week since I was inaugurated as part of the Technical Working Group for Adolescent and Young People’s Health and Development, and while my major work within the group is more of publicity and communication, I know I’ll be drawn in more eventually as time goes on.
Why? Because adolescence, defined by WHO as the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19, is the most risky period in anyone’s life. It is especially imperative to me. WHO also refers to it as a unique stage of human development and an important time for laying the foundations of good health.
This means it’s also the time that these young people, teenagers especially, make and take risky health and lifestyle decisions in life because they are at their most inquisitive, impressionable, rebellious, and adventurous phase.
I think about my own adolescent years, and I shudder a bit. In their own right, they are the most at-risk group of all age groups, and they must be protected, even if it’s against their wills, especially when it comes to health issues. May God help us.