By Mike Awoyinfa
Forget “Japa Syndrome”! While many young Nigerians are seeking opportunities abroad, a physiotherapist is defying the trend. Driven by a deep faith and a desire to build a future in her home country, Dr. Adaeze Chidebelu has chosen to stay and make her mark on Nigeria’s healthcare landscape.
“There is money to be made in Nigeria,” she tells me confidently, revealing that “I had one opportunity to work in the UK but I refused. If you know what you are doing, there is money and you will make it here. The fact that more professionals are going abroad has opened up all kinds of opportunities. The more people are leaving, the higher the demand for medical professionals which includes physiotherapists. I want to use the opportunity to sell myself because the demand is high now.”
So, how did I meet Dr. Adaeze Chidebelu, the CEO of Legacy Physiotherapy Clinic currently housed under Milestone Hospital, Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos? A bathroom accident led to my slipping and injuring my shoulder. After weeks of taking medications that didn’t improve my situation, my orthopedic surgeon recommended surgery. But at my age, I wasn’t comfortable with surgery. So I opted for physiotherapy. While researching for the nearest physiotherapy clinic, I saw a number online (08039784961), dialed it and I was lucky to speak to Dr. Chidebelu who gave me an appointment. From my X-rays, she discovered I had a torn shoulder ligament and she explained that it takes time to heal. She put me through all kinds of procedures such as infrared light heating, ice block treatment, TENS machine, Ultrasound and exercises tailored to my situation. Then there was the massaging of my arm and arm-swinging exercises. With a table next to me for support, I was asked to lean forward so that one arm hangs straight down which I was made to swing repeatedly.
Even in the process of receiving treatment, the reporter in me was curiously asking questions. I asked the physiotherapist what physiotherapy is about and she answered: “It’s a science. We deal with musculoskeletal issues. More of pains. Muscle pains, deformities. The goal is to make deformed people get better or get well. We help the disabled to live a better life.”
Even though massaging is part of the tools in her arsenal, Dr. Chidebelu says: “Massage is one percent of what physiotherapy is about. Physiotherapy is very vast. We have physiotherapy in gynecology, neurology, pediatrics, orthopedics, everywhere. In orthopedics is where you come with musculoskeletal pains, joint pains like arthritis, knee pain, shoulder pain, back pain. Then in neurology, you have stroke patients, Parkinsonism, we help them get better to at least 95 percent to be able to walk.”
I wanted to know if traditional bone-setters are also physiotherapists but the doctor said they are not. She won’t even want to recommend bone-setters to patients, saying: “Though theirs is a gift from God, sometimes, they make a whole lot of mistakes. There are patients we have who have malunion as a result of dealing with bone-setters. The bones will not align well. You will find that bone-setters don’t work with X-ray, they don’t work with anything to know if they are getting it right. And the way they bandage people’s bones, it can cause a lot of damage. I don’t advise people to go there, because they cause more harm than good. My advice is: Beware of them. Personally, I don’t believe in bone-setters.”
Adaeze started as a good science student in secondary whose ambition was to be a medical doctor but along the way, physiotherapy came in 2009 when she was admitted at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Enugu Campus). She found the course “so stressful” and intensive that she wanted to quit but some good friends encouraged her to stay on. For the first three years, she did common courses with the medical students but faced physiotherapy frontally in the fourth year.
Looking back, she thanks God “for having brought me thus far.” Today, the course is so hot that physiotherapists are being sought for in U.K., Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. “We are hotcakes now,” a fulfilled Adaeze proudly says. “They are looking for us everywhere. Even to get admission to read physiotherapy is very difficult. It took me five years to train. I did my housemanship at the Teaching Hospital, Abuja. And for my NYSC at Ojo Barracks Medical School, Lagos. I also got a job with St. Nicholas Hospital but I was on service then, so I couldn’t make it. Then, I did part-time with Isolo General Hospital. After NYSC, I got a job with Grover’s Hospital at Victoria Island but my husband said it’s far from me, because of my children. That’s how I got Milestone Hospital where we established Legacy Physiotherapy Clinic as an entrepreneurial venture under their umbrella and we pay them. It is not easy running an outfit like this, but God is running it for us. The clinic is doing well. I can beat my chest and say God is doing wonders here, both in the recovery of patients, how they are coming. It’s something beyond me. I can see the hand of God in this business.”
On her business strategy, she says: “I don’t look for patients. My strategy is to give my patients the best. And once I give them the best, they go out there and announce me. They advertise me through word of mouth, through referrals. Once you are happy with our service, you become our ambassador. Our business is a difficult one. To get the machines to work with, you need millions to buy things like Ultrasound, TENS, wax bath, shortwave, Electrical Muscle Stimulation, and many others. The tools are diverse. If you have them, you will excel.”
Overall, Dr. Adaeze is happy with what she is doing. Her advice to younger ones coming in: “Physiotherapy is a very nice profession where you can stand out if you focus and do your thing. At school, some of the students used to make jest of us and describe us people doing massage. But massage is a tiny aspect which is one percent of the business. Physiotherapy is so wide. Physiotherapy is the future. It will be taking over soon from the field of medicine as nobody wants to take pills and painkillers anymore. People are going for natural remedy instead of drugs and chemicals that will damage the kidney. For me, I won’t Japa! Even if I will later relocate, I want my clinic to be running here in Nigeria.”
