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By Chukwudi Nweje
For Mrs. Mariam Yusuf, her world seems to be collapsing before her very eyes, as she battles to raise a whopping N20 million so that her son could live.
•Mariam and her son, Abdulrokeeb
A native of Igbaja in Igaja Local Government Area of Kwara, Mrs. Yusuf, a petty trader in Lagos, is crying out to the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and his Lagos counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, all public spirited and philanthropists, nongovernmental organizations and corporate entities to save the life of her seven-year- old son, who needs N20 million for a corrective heart surgery in India.
She said she and her husband, Ridwan Yusuf, a freight-forwarding agent, have exhausted their finances, and have still not been able to raise the money.
Trouble started for the Yusufs when their seven-year old boy, Abdulrokeeb Yusuf, was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease, commonly called hole in the heart, 41 days after he was born. The joy that heralded the birth of Abdulrokeeb on November 22, 2016, suddenly paled into agony and pain for the family when they were informed that a corrective surgery to repair the baby’s heart would take them to India and at a very high cost of N20 million.
A medical record from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, on March 10, 2017, by a consultant pediatrician, Dr O.J. Sokunbi, said that Abdulrokeeb required further cardiovascular evaluation and open heart surgery to correct his heart defects in order to forestall irreversible and life threatening complications.
Mrs Yusuf lamented that she and her husband have done everything within their financial power to raise the money for the overseas surgery trip but have not succeeded, hence, the appeal to the public for assistance.
She described her son’s condition as pathetic, saying: “He is so weak that he either sits at one place or is carried around because he quickly becomes tired. His younger ones are agile and run around.”
Recounting the genesis of the trouble, she said: “This problem started when we took my son to Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi- Araba, 41 days after his birth, for a normal check-up. After they ran some tests, we were told that he has a hole in his heart and would require corrective surgery. Since then, we have been running around to raise money for his surgery in India without any success.”
Appealing for financial assistance from Nigerians, she equally said: “We are, therefore, appealing to the Kwara State governor and his Lagos counterpart, all public spirited individuals and philanthropists, as well as nongovernmental organisations and corporate entities to come to our aid as we look to raise money for the surgery. As of three years ago, the estimated cost for the surgery was N15 million, but I don’t know how much it will cost now because the exchange rate of Naira to the dollar keeps going up. I need assistance to help me save my son’s life.
“He sits at one place all day if I don’t carry him. He easily gets tired and that has become a source of worry to us because he has younger ones. His heart condition has become a drain on the family’s meager resources.”
Mrs Yusuf could be reached on phone number 0803712 5260. Financial assistance could also be sent to: Account name, Mustapha Mariam Adunni; account number, 0125548693; GTBank.
