12 ‘Help me save my daughter’s life’
Children are supposed to bring joy and happiness to their parents/homes, but when any of them has a health challenge, it instead brings pain, frustration and sorrow to the family.
This has been the predicament of Alhaji Umar Muhammed and his family these past 11 years, in the course of caring for one of their children – Jemila, who suffers from sickle cell anemia, and is presently receiving stem cell transplant at the Cellteck Healthcare Medical Centre, Benin.
Alhaji Umar, who has eight children, described caring for a sickle cell patient as a terrible and frustrating experience, as one just watches helplessly while the child goes through excruciating pains.
“Once the child goes into crisis, the whole family will have no peace because we all have to stay awake pampering and cuddling her. We may not sleep throughout the night because when one person gets tired, another will take over. This is how we have been coping with her condition for 11 years now until we brought her to this hospital.
“Whenever the crisis begins, we must take her to the hospital and we spend between N70,000 and above, depending on the gravity of the crisis,” he said.
He explained that Jemila’s crisis which occurred frequently at the early stage, started reducing from the age of seven.
“She is undergoing stem cell transplant. They have to remove the problematic cells in her bone marrow and replace them with that of her elder brother.
“My greatest problem now is the money needed for the transplant. The total money required is N10 million but I was able to pay a deposit of N5m, remaining the balance of N5m. The burden is too much on me and I don’t know what to do,” he lamented.
He added that the transplant was supposed to be done at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, where it is cheaper but the equipment were not in order, hence they went to a private hospital.
“I am appealing to wellmeaning individuals and government to assist me in offsetting the bill because I am exhausted at the moment, I am a retiree,” he concluded.
Alhaji Umar however appealed to the government to encourage such specialized hospitals by giving them tax waivers.
Meanwhile, the Consultant Hematologist and collaborating stem cell Transplantologist to Cellteck Healthcare Medical Centre, Prof. Nosakhare Godwin Bazuaye, said Jemila is the second patient undergoing stem cell transplant in the hospital.
He said the first patient was a 15-year-old boy who has been discharged and no longer has traits of sickle cell.
“Jemila was admitted here this February. We were able to do the stem cell harvest from her brother who is the match donor and we have been able to destroy her own stem cells and transplant the new stem cell, which is AA, to her bone marrow.
“Now, she is in the process of the new cell engrafting and producing more cells. Once the new cells begin to grow, they will take over her entire system and will no longer produce SS but AA which is from the donor,” Bazuaye said.
He explained that stem cell transplant is a complex process, but has been domesticated, adding “We first had a successful transplant in a teaching hospital in 2011 which was the first in sub-Saharan Africa. This centre will not only cure sickle cell, cancer and bone marrow failure but also some congenital diseases in children that require bone-marrow transplant.”
Bazuaye attributed the high cost of the treatment to epileptic power supply, high cost of drugs and the cost of the transplant.
“For instance, after the transplant, the patient will stay in an isolated ward of the hospital for about two to three months; we rely on generator to power the machines for 24 hours. Without power, the person will not survive the treatment because there is no air in the isolated ward.
“In developed countries, transplant can be done and the patients would be allowed to go home and be coming to the hospital for treatment. But here, the environment is not conducive and once the patient inhales dust, there would be problem and as such, we have to keep them in isolated rooms,” he said.
“There is hope for sickle cell sufferers. We have few trained personnel in stem cell transplant in the country, but the centre will liaise with some universities to train doctors, nurses and lab scientists in the act of stem cell transplant,” he concluded.
Alhaji Umar Muhammed can be assisted through his Zenith Bank Current Account, 1003926359.