Nollywood actor, Bimbo Manuel, has recounted how he became paralysed due to a doctor’s wrong prescription.
The actor reflected on his love life, career and other personal issues in the latest edition of #WithChude podcast.
Manuel said the incident occurred after he had a car crash many years ago when he was in his late 20s.
The film star revealed how he had visited a general hospital at Lagos Island after he started feeling pain days after the accident.
He said after multiple x-rays were conducted on him, a doctor at the orthopaedic section of the hospital placed him on treatment for rheumatism and arthritis.
This, he said, worsened his condition as he could not work again for a period of time.
Manuel said during his health battle, some doctors advised him to get a wheelchair but he refused to take such advice.
“I’ve been told three times to go and get a wheelchair and that was by experts, people who should know. They told me, Mr. Manuel, do you know anyone abroad? Maybe they can get you the electric type so you’ll be able to use it by yourself but I said no,” he said.
“It was an auto accident inside the town, and it travelled through my entire spine. I didn’t know, I walked away from it. I didn’t feel any pain. A little down the line, however, I then started to feel pain.
“So, I went to a general hospital at Lagos Island…I still remember the man’s name clearly, he worked at the orthopaedic section.
“I was in my late twenties or early thirties and a doctor put me on treatment for rheumatism and arthritis until I couldn’t walk anymore. I lost all sensation on my right side, and I was frustrated. I just couldn’t go anywhere, the slightest movement would make me scream.”
The actor said he was later taken to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife in Osun State, for treatment.
He added that after a few months at the hospital, he was able to walk again.
“So, they took me to Ife teaching hospital, the university teaching hospital put me in traction, and in a couple of months, I was out on my feet. Apparently, the other did not know what he was doing and he was confident about it,” he added.
On getting married at 40, he said, “I was not even going to marry because I’d seen quite a number of marriages, and what I came up with was that there’s a bit too much about the quality of the person that you’re going into the marriage with. It’s like throwing up a dice; you don’t know what number would come up. She may seem right, just perfect for you, but there is a chance because we all change. Then, I must also confess that I’d been so independent for so long when almost all my friends were married. I didn’t quite understand what marriage was about beyond having children and being able to tell people that I was married and show off my wedding band. I didn’t want to just belong; I didn’t want to just get married because everybody else was married, or I wouldn’t want to have children out of wedlock. They didn’t bother me, so it wasn’t anything high on my priority list at that time. There was a bit too much in life to chase.”
However, Bimbo Manuel credits his decision to get married to his wife, whom he said gave him a sense of purpose.
“We all need anchors otherwise we will just float endlessly; we may think life has purpose; it may not quite be complete. It was not the pressure of getting married that made me marry, it was her that made me decide to get married. We dated for a couple of years before we got married and, in that period, I was a bit more stable. She was an anchor for that period, and we achieved a lot of things that I may have probably not been able to achieve on my own.” he said.