‘I want to walk again’
Orphaned at childhood, crippled by illness, 30-yr-old man cries:
Orphaned at a tender age, Adeka Eche, now 30, worked so hard while growing up to fend for himself and two other siblings until the mysterious illness which rendered his two legs ineffective took the shine out of his life.
Today, he remains at the mercy of his kinsmen who offer him not enough care but as much as their little resources could provide to make life worth living for the young man who has since relocated from Abuja to his Obotu-Icho village in Ugboju Community of Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State.
Eche’s nightmare as a cripple began sometimes in 2010 when he obtained permission from his workplace at the defunct Oceanic Bank to travel to his maternal home in Ogoli-Ugboju to see his elder brother whose legs were fractured because of a fatal motor accident.
“One of the days, before my departure from the village back to Abuja where I worked in Oceanic Bank as a cleaner, I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my waist. That was in December 2010. The pain continued but I managed to get back to work. By January 31, 2011, I had Chicken pox and while treatment was underway, the waist pain returned on February 9, 2011,” Eche said.
He further recalled that he visited the hospital and took medications prescribed by the doctors yet the pain grew worse to the extent that he could no longer urinate, at which point the private clinic where he was being treated referred him to the Specialist Hospital in Gwagwalada.
According to him, he was admitted at the Gwagwalada hospital for nearly two months in the physiotherapy ward where series of test were conducted alongside recommended treatment until the doctors ordered a full screening, which neither he nor relatives then could afford the money so he was discharged.
Eche, the second son of three children, returned back home with little or no hope because his elder brother was still battling with his fractured legs while the youngest of the family and only daughter, Onyowoicho Adeka, was shuttling between the different locations where her brothers were kept to cater for them.
He added, “Life took a different meaning for me. It wasn’t easy and nothing since then has been easy. Leaving the hospital, we went to another physiotherapy centre in Kogi State in search of healing in October 2011. We didn’t achieve the desired result so since then we’ve resorted to prayers due to lack of money to move me to a specialist health facility.”
Despite the toll the seven-year-old illness had taken on the light complexioned school certificate holder, he is optimistic of securing a university degree in Business Administration and subsequently, studying Theology to become a gospel preacher.
Though he relies on the support of other people either to move him around, especially to the toilet or to change his positions, if there is one prayer he desires an answer to, Eche says, “I want to walk again.”
He admitted that oftentimes discouragement stares him at the face since loneliness has become his constant companion, having to stay on the same spot and indoors on daily basis.
Eche presently desires a mobile telephone, which would enable him internet access to relate with the world around him, as he believes that God would raise him help for further medical treatment.
Commenting, his sister, Onyowoicho, who bears the financial burden of catering for her bedridden brother, disclosed that it has not been easy since all she does is subsistent farming to put food on their table.
Onyowoicho said that her brother, even in his condition, is gifted in shoemaking, expressing optimism that he could do a lot to aid himself if financially helped to access medical attention that may perhaps help to ease his movement.
According to her, she has been unable to either further her education or move to the city in search of a better life due to her brother’s condition as there would be no one to attend to him in her absence.