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By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Long before he sat for the JAMB UTME, Chinonso Osondu, a tall, dark and handsome 18-year-old, who loves to play the keyboard in church, had decided on a future career.
“As a young person, I want to become an engineer – a biomedical engineer. Doctors save lives and they need appropriate tools to do so. Biomedical engineering, which you can also refer to as medical engineering, involves the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. So, biomedical engineering knowledge leads to design and production of tools, machines and equipment that enable doctors use the knowledge and skills God has given them to treat their patients and so save lives. As a person, I know I am brilliant, but my career interest is not in core medicine. Anyway, life will be boring if everyone is a medical doctor. My sweet mother is an excellent nurse with certifications in some specialties, my elder brother is studying to become a pharmacist and I have friends like Gechi, Somto, Moses, who are studying other things. Moses, for instance, wants to become an awesome computer software geek. Life must have variety,” Chinonso says, explaining why he is passionate about biomedical engineering.
These days, when he goes for dialysis at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, doctors and other health professionals use biomedical technology to “clean” his blood and remove life threatening waste products of metabolic processes that go in the tissues and organs of his body. If such waste materials are not excreted from the cells, they would build up and then damage tissues and organs. Major organs like the liver, kidney, large intestine, among others, help the body to remove waste products.
The job which dialysis machines do for him and other ESRD (end-stage renal disease) patients at LUTH was originally being handled by his kidneys, before they failed. When his kidneys failed, he became one of the unfortunate patients around the world on the list of people waiting for kidney transplant surgery.
It is needless to state that the unpleasant development has been a source of pain, agony, anxiety and psychological trauma within his family and among friends of the family. The financial burden of paying for the regular dialysis sessions he must have twice a week, to prevent failure of other organs and thereby stay alive pending when a kidney transplant can be done, has been financially crippling, to say the least. Today, the family is in a race to raise money for the kidney transplant surgery he needs to be remain alive, have a normal life and achieve his dream.
Currently, Chinonso is studying Information Technology at the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, which he had to switch to, to remain in school as he could not run the Biomedical Engineering course as a part time student in the former university that first offered him admission.
“NOUN is a distance learning school. It’s mostly online, which is perfect for my condition,” he says.
Gently prodded to talk about the condition and why he changed course, Chinonso says: “The renal problem has been with me since birth but it wasn’t really serious until early this year when I had to stop school due to it. I was hospitalised. I was on daily drugs and medications and almost weekly dialysis sessions. With dialysis sessions and medication I have been able to cope to some extent.”
So how did he get to the stage of needing a transplant, Sunday Sun sought to know? First, he swallowed hard, blinked as a tear drop rolled down his face. But a pat on the back and gentle rub of the shoulders by the reporter, helped to make him regain composure after a short tense moment you could cut with a knife. He could no longer continue talking as he became emotional and tears well up again, but he held back. This prompted the interview to suspended and finished via a WhatsApp chat held later in the evening of that day.
During the WhatsApp chat, he painted a poignant picture of how the condition was discovered: “Just like a regular day in school, I had a swelling on my face. I called my mum and she said I should go to the school clinic to do a check up. On getting to the clinic, I was admitted almost immediately and I ran some tests. It was the result of the tests that made us to know that there was something abnormal going on. The EUCR value (urea and creatinine value) were very high. The level of urea and creatinine in urine are known as markers in kidney disease cases. So, my parents were called to pick me from school, to run more tests. After a series of tests, the doctors diagnosed me with hydronephrosis, which is a condition of excess urine accumulation in kidney(s) which causes swelling of the kidneys. This causes pain during urination, nausea and vomiting. The doctors said that was what made my face swell in the first place and it wasn’t a small issue. Since then, I have been placed on strict diet and drugs and most importantly, dialysis.The development was the main reason I changed from the full time programme and switched over to NOUN.”
At just 18, Chinonso like all young persons has a full future to live for, and that explains the deep pain that tugs at the hearts of his parents, siblings, school mates and many other people who are aware of his condition. But on his own, does he have any fears and moments of anxiety? How does he handle such moments when they come?
Frankly, he says: “Yes, I have fears. Stage 5 chronic kidney disease is a terminal disease. Meaning that dialysis can only manage it but not cure it. So sometimes, thinking of death and the afterlife is inevitable. Sometimes, the motivation to do anything isn’t really there again. It vanishes sometimes. Depression is an everyday thing. Anxiety is always there because you never know what can happen. For instance, some people that come for dialysis today, tomorrow you hear that they are dead and they have the same condition. So, it’s just a never ending loop of thoughts going through your head, every minute of the day.”
He continues: “Looking at everything, in some moments of introspection I reassure myself that I have dreams to live for and that kidney failure cannot kill those dreams. My siblings help to cheer me up. And sometimes we laugh about the whole thing like it’s going to come and go. We relate normally.”
There are people who defiantly fought medical conditions that were said to be terminal and by Divine intervention, pulled through successfully. You wonder aloud if that is also the disposition of the good looking, somewhat taciturn young fellow. And he says: “I know that kidney failure will not kill my dreams. Through the mercy of God and help of friends and family, I will overcome this condition, to live a full useful life. After getting my degree in Information Technology and the transplant is done, I will still pursue my earlier desire to study biomedical engineering.
Friends rally for Chinonso
Finding herself at her wits end, Mrs. Joy Osondu, mother of Chinonso, announced the life-threatening condition of her son on her Facebook wall after a friend advised her to take that step, and launch an appeal to the whole world to come to her aid. Efforts are now on to raise money through donations, to pay for the transplant to be done at LUTH at an estimated cost of N10 million, which is a princely sum that the family cannot afford.
Since the diagnosis was made in February 2022, Chinonso has been receiving dialysis two times a week. His uncle is willing to donate one of his kidneys, so that his nephew can have another chance at life and contribute to the world. “He is hopeful and staying resilient but hanging onto your goodwill and kindness,” one the friends of the mother, Margaret M, informed her circle of friends in a special appeal she made on the family’s behalf.
“Please, I beg, help me save Chinonso’s life. His life is dependent on your kindness and generosity. Thank you for sharing, donating and praying for us. Please share. Remember, no donation is too small. May God bless you as you make this sacrifice.”
How to donate:
NAME:
CHINONSO OSONDU
BANK: ZENITH BANK
ACC No: 2270309294
