…Needs N4.7m for surgery
From Chukwudera Eze, Enugu
Master Divine Emmanuel, who will turn three in October, has been carrying a severe pain, the pain of a birth defect called Bladder Exstrophy.
The pathetic situation is as a result of his bladder growing outside his abdominal wall, thereby making him to be unable to urinate through his penis.
The defect has caused his parents, Mr and Mrs Emmanuel, sleepless night, pain, depression and misery, which stare them in the face every minute of the day as they continued to search for funds to enable their son undergo corrective surgery for the defect.
According to the medical report issued to them at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Itiku Osalla, Enugu State, Divine needs to undergo four different series of surgeries, which include: functional bladder closure; bladder neck repair; epispadia repair; and reflux surgery.
Despite his challenges, the young Divine is enjoying joining his mates to learn from formal education as he is at kindergarten level, and has shown reflexes of a very smart and intelligent boy.
Narrating their ordeal, Divine’s mother, Mrs Grace Emmanuel who is a teacher, gave graphic detailed of how it all started and what the experience has been like since Divine was born.
“Immediately he was given birth to on 24th October, 2013, we discovered the case. It was not something that we discovered few days after his birth. We rushed him to Enugu State Teaching Hospital, Parklane at first; they referred us to Mother of Christ Specialist hospital where they also told us that they cannot handle it as well, but that they have a surgeon that usually comes around. They gave us his number and later he gave us an appointment.
“At that time, the baby was just a day old. We gave birth to him on a Thursday and on Friday we started the journey of saving his life. When we met the doctor, he told us that they usually see it in new born babies that the case of our son was not the first and it can be corrected through surgery and he has to go through series of surgeries. That it is not a case of emergency that we have to take it beat by beat. He now referred us to University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu. That was where he carried out the first surgery when the child was a week old.
“The surgery was called Bladder Primary Closure. Even though, after a month the surgery was conducted, the bladder started prolapsing again from the urethra showing that the surgery was not successful. We were discharged but after six months, we were back for another surgery. He was having hernia then. After the surgery, it was successful. Since then, we are trying to go back to the first surgery that failed, and at this juncture, we cannot finance the surgeries again,” she said weeping.
Like the wife, Mr Chijioke Emmanuel, a taxi driver, appealed to public-spirited individuals to come to the rescue of his son, saying that his taxi business cannot raise the N4.7 million required for the four different surgeries on his son.
Crying, he said that he does not want to lose his son to the cold hands of death.
Hear him: “I am a graduate of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), but because of the situation of no job, I resorted to driving a taxi. We have spent a lot of money on our son trying to give him a better life, all to no avail.
“This problem has drained our pocket. The first surgery and the treatment took a lot of money from us. Imagine when this suffering started, when he was given birth to. I really feel for the little boy. My challenge is how to get this amount of money to perform this surgery. We don’t know, what next to do and I don’t want to lose him to death.”
The couples are, therefore, soliciting the help of Nigerians to come to their aid so that Divine will live.
“I beg Nigerians to come to our assistance by contributing towards the survival of our child,” Mrs Emmanuel pleaded.
Their bank details are: Bank: FCMB, Account Name: Grace Sharon Emmanuel, Account number: 3251364010. Or Bank: UBA, Account name: Emmanuel Chizuruoke, Account number: 2078001642.