Four families whose children have heart-related problems narrate their traumatic experiences in their quest to give them healthy lives. DGossip247 writes.
Abiodun Yusuf, 42, is a barber on the Lagos Island. His wife, Kehinde, hawks kerosene within the neighbourhood. She says she needs to do this so as to augment whatever her husband provides for the upkeep of the family comprising three children. Even before Nigerian economy starts dwindling, the couple is just hanging on to life, hoping that there will be better days ahead.
But their hope remains forlorn as there are no indices to show that the economy will improve at least for now. However, that is the least of the couple’s worries. They have found solace in the fact the economy problem is a general one affecting the majority of the people.
Time is running out for Mutiat
Their concern is how to find a solution to the ill health of their one-year-old child, Mutiat. Mere looking at Mutiat, she appears like a normal child. But that look is deceptive going by her medical record. Whenever she has crisis especially at night, both parents say they have no choice but to stay awake even though they can hardly do anything to ameliorate her pains. They say seeing their child in such a helpless situation is not what they wish their enemy. “Imagine your child is in pain, you are beside her, yet you cannot help her. My wife will just be crying beside her.
That is what we have been experiencing since she was diagnosed with hole in the heart,” Yusuf says. Time, a doctor had told them, is running out. Yet there is no hope in sight. He says, “My baby’s name is Mutiat Yusuf. She is now one-year-old. She has heart problem. We discovered since February 2014.
We discovered through a test. She was showing some signs and we took her to the health centre. They gave us a card to take her for a medical test at Oshodi. It was after that test we discovered that she has heart problem. When we took her to Mercy Children’s Hospital, Lagos Island, they asked us to take her to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, for further test. We had the test at a private hospital in Alaka area of Lagos because LASUTH’s workers were on strike then. “They told us at Alaka that if we want to travel it will cost roughly N2 million, for both flight and the cost of the operation. She is our third born, we have a boy and a girl aside from her.
They are both medically fine. When we got to the hospital they gave us drugs. I cannot calculate how much we have spent. From last year December to January, I have spent up to N62, 500 aside the money for medical tests.” In their quest to find solution to their daughter’s health challenge, they were advised to take her to a specialist hospital in Kano. They were however discouraged by the cost implication of travelling to Kano and fear that the health of the girl could be complicated since they could not afford the luxury of air travel.
Expensive drug
On how the girl’s sickness has affected his lean purse, he said, “It has affected us so much. Sometimes we buy drugs of N1, 500 to N3, 000 within a week. When they admitted her at the General Hospital in Ikeja, we paid N5, 000. She was admitted for two months. Between November last year and January, she has done tests worth N45, 000. To even feed the family is a big problem.” Yusuf is even worried that since the couple shuttle between their home and hospital, it is even difficult to engage in any vocation that could bring money to the family. “We sometimes believe she will die.
When the weather is really hot and there is no electricity, we have to put on the generator to make her comfortable. The burden is too much for me and this is why I am appealing to Nigerians to assist us,” a dejected Yusuf said amidst tears. Mutiat’s mother, Kehinde, said she had the premonition that something was not right about her daughter’s health on the day she was christened and quickly alerted her husband. Her husband in turn asked her to consult an elderly neighbour who advised that her to wrap Mutiat in a wet cloth hoping that the wetness of the cloth would reduce her abnormal body temperature. But rather than abate, her condition became aggravated and neighbours advised that the girl should be taken to a health centre in the neighbourhood the next day.
But her case was beyond the health centre and was referred to the Children’s Hospital, Mercy on Lagos Island. She said, “They admitted her, gave her oxygen and conducted some tests on her, but they could not tell us what was wrong. We were on admission for a long time there. A senior doctor came and said she should be discharged because she had been on admission for a long time. Before we went for the test, we were told that it would cost us about N15, 000 but on getting there, we were told that it was N45, 000. “We had to go home and gather the money.
I cried profusely because it was difficult to raise the money. After the test she was referred to the General Hospital, Ikeja. When we got there, they took her and gave her oxygen because it was difficult for her to breathe. We bought injections and all the drugs prescribed by the doctor.
On the day she was admitted, her temperature was very high. I gave her drugs, we also bought Bonababe, but she was not getting better. I knew we had to leave it all to God. After everything we did including various tests, they told us that she would need operation. We asked them if we could do it in Nigeria. They said it could not be done in Nigeria,because we don’t have the facilities.”
Eze’s pathetic story
Like Mutiat, Chikodiri Eze, 22, is from a poor home. He has been battling heartrelated disease for about eight years now. The problem, which started in 2008 when he was in a secondary school, aborted his dream of proceeding to the university despite making seven credits including Mathematics and English Language when he sat for the Senior Secondary School Certificate examinations in 2010.
Going back to school is now the least of Eze’s problems. All he wants now is how to regain his health. But perhaps, that is a tall dream beyond him and his family because it will cost about N6 million for him to do a corrective surgery –the only solution prescribed by a team of doctors that had examined him. In a referral letter, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Osun State, says, Eze has “a 2-dimensional Echocardiograph which showed a probable tricuspid valve abnormality or a primary cardiomyophatic problem on the right ventricle with tricuspid annular dilatation.
“To correct the abnormality, the patient will benefit from the services of either of these two hospitals: Apollo Hospital, Savita Vihar, Delhi Mathura Road, New Delhi, India or Max Super Specialty Hospital, New Delhi, India. The cost implication is between N4m and N6m.” For Eze whose father is an itinerant trader who sells second-hand clothes in various markets between his Ondo State base and neighbouring Osun State and a roadside food vendor mum, Augustina, raising such money is impossible.
‘My mum refused to sign consent form in Indian hospital’
Although luck smiled on Eze as Kanu Heart Foundation sponsored his medical trip and paid the required sum in 2012, in India, it was discovered putting him on the surgical table was too risky because his body was too weak to undergo surgery. However, the Indian doctors agreed to take the risk provided Eze’s mum agreed to sign the consent form. Based on her understanding of the situation, she declined and returned home with her son. Now, she says she is ready to take the risk but help is not forthcoming.
‘I spend N10,000 on drugs monthly’
Eze now depends on drugs to cushion the effects of her excruciating pains. To raise the money for his drugs is difficult. Whenever he cannot raise the money, he has to bear the pains with their attendant risk. According to him, his drugs can cost as much as N10, 000 in a month. On how he raises the amount? Eze says the only regular money is the N2, 000 his elder sister who works in a factory in Lagos provides at the end of every month. Others come from Good Samaritans. Eze says, “When some people see my abnormal look, they will just pity me and give me money.
I only go out to whenever I want to buy drugs otherwise; I stay indoor most of the time. Whenever I take a walk, I feel embarrass the way people look at me. Besides, after walking for a while, I become tired easily. I just hope that God will do it one day.” My husband and I are helpless, says Eze’s mum “My husband and I are petty traders.
There is no way we can raise the amount of money required for the surgery. What the boy needs now is total treatment and that is why I am appealing to Nigerians to help my son.“He is brilliant and wants to go to the university to read law. I want Nigerians to please assist us so that my child will not die,” Augustina says.
‘Ours was traumatic and harrowing experience’
Speaking on his own experience, a Lagos-based journalist, whose new baby was diagnosed of heart defect at the age of six months, says it was traumatic and harrowing. “It all started when we noticed that the baby was having visible signs of cold and catarrh, while at the same time she was always sweating even when we switched on the fan,” the journalist, who craved to be anonymous, says.
Although he dismissed doctors’ suggestion that the baby could be suffering from heart-related diseases with a wave of the hand, the reality dawned on him when the ECG and the Eco laboratory tests conducted at the Mecure Medical Laboratory, Lagos, revealed that the baby has Cardio Vascular defect otherwise known in local parlance as hole in the heart. He says the family was devastated but was determined to save the baby’s life by contacting a specialist hospital, Apollo Children’s Hospital, India, where the baby underwent a successful surgery which cost N2.5 million. “Sourcing for the money was not easy,” he adds.
‘After our baby’s surgery, she had infection’
He stated that the treatment of the ailment comes with the attendant risk of the patient coming in contact with infection. Of course, his baby contracted an infection, which till date, the family is still battling with, spending money of intravenous injections. This, he attributed, to the fact that the baby underwent a major surgery. He said, “On return to Nigeria, the baby was placed on intravenous injections of five rounds, which she was taking twice in a month. This costs N11, 000 apart from N10, 000 consultation fee of the private hospital we are using. “After taking this for months, we were advised to stop it on medical ground because it was becoming difficult for her to cope with the injection. In the alternative, she now uses Stimuno, baby syrup, which goes for N1, 400 per 25 ml bottle. She takes this twice in a day. The doctor said this would enhance her immune system. We still need to carry out more tests to know the next thing to be done.”
Baby Aisha needs another surgery in two years’ time
For Ibraheem Kewulere, a local government employee based in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, he has carried the cross of his child, Aishat, since birth. Just a week after her birth in 2009, Aisha became very sick. She was given normal treatment expected to be given to a patient with fever. But her ailment was beyond that.
Kewulere says, “At a point, mucus was coming out of her ears and the odour was quite offensive. Later blood was coming out of her ears and her tongue was blue. Her mother went to Osun State to visit her brother. When the man saw my daughter, he advised that Aisha should be taken to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State. “It was as a result of series of tests carried out on her that it was discovered that she had a hole in the heart. We were given a referral letter to the UCH Ibadan. I was dejected when I was told that she needed a major heart surgery.
The little money I raised was spent on her as we frequent hospital doing tests and buying drugs.” After raising N1.4 million, a foundation,Zakat and Sadaqat Foundation, provided N1.3 million to meet up with the N2.5 million needed to carry out the surgery in an Indian hospital. So, Aisha and her parents left the shores of the country on February 2, 2014 and returned on February 20 after a successful surgery. Aisha, who is now six-year-old, is a Nursery 2 pupil. However, she still goes to the UCH whenever she has appointment with her doctors. According to her father, she sometimes complains about pains in her bones, an ailment doctors described as rheumatism. As a result of this, she has been placed on aspirin for life. She takes one tablet daily. Although a pack of aspirin compris-ing 10 sachets of 10 tablets cost just N130, Kewulere’s worry is that when Aisha clocks eight, she has to return to India to remove the valve placed in her heart. He said, “The doctor said this is necessary because by then, she would have outgrown the valve she is using at the moment.
I broke down in tears because I know this will cost some money. The doctors and others who were around consoled me that I should be grateful that her surgery was successful. I hope and pray that when the time comes, I should be able to raise the money for her operation.” According to the United States-based National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, it is a misconception to assume that women who gave birth to babies born with atrial septal defects (ASDs), ventricular septal defects (VSDs), or other heart defects may have done something wrong during their pregnancies. It adds that most of the time, “doctors don’t know why congenital heart defects occur.” “Heredity may play a role in some heart defects. For example, a parent who has a congenital heart defect is slightly more likely than other people to have a child who has the problem.
Very rarely, more than one child in a family is born with a heart defect,” it says. MedicineNet.com, a site that “brings doctor’s knowledge” to the public, congenital heart defects can involve: the interior walls of the heart, the valves inside the heart or the arteries and veins that carry blood to the heart or the body “Congenital heart defects change the normal flow of blood through the heart. There are many types of congenital heart defects. They range from simple defects with no symptoms to complex defects with severe, life-threatening symptoms.
“The defects are the most common type of birth defect. They affect eight out of every 1,000 newborns. Many of these defects are simple conditions. They need no treatment or are easily fixed. Some babies are born with complex congenital heart defects. These defects require special medical care soon after birth,” it adds. MedicineNet.com assures patients with heart problems that the diagnosis and treatment of complex heart defects has tremendously improved over the past few decades.
Eze’s number: 08174296588. Mutiat’s dad’s numbers: 08066565404, 08187117334.
No comments:
Post a Comment