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On dialysis for three years
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Needs N15m for transplant
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Says “I want to be with my son”
ABUJA – Thirty -Five year old Inia Jennifer Baba will give anything to be with her seven-year-old son.
“ I just want to stay alive and take care of him because he is all I have got,” she told NHO at the dialysis room in National Hospital, Abuja.
But her dream of being a loving mother and wife is gradually becoming impossible as she battles for life on a kidney support machine. Now, she fears the battle may be lost completely unless help come her way urgently for her to undergo a kidney transplant.
For three years, she has been battling with a kidney disorder which actually began as the “normal malaria and typhoid fever” in 2005. Then, like most people in the country, she would take antimalarials each time she felt weak, expecting all symptoms to disappear. They never did.
“During my NYSC service I discovered my eyes would just go blank and I would ask my friends if they also experienced the momentary darkness. Within minutes, the darkness would disappear and my eyes would become clearer. Then the symptoms of body weakness would start and I would assume I had malaria as usual
“Once when I got home, I told my mum, as I wasn’t married then, about the symptoms and she took me to Asokoro General Hospital. The doctor dilated my eye and after examination he told me I was hypertensive and referred me to a Nephrologist (specialist in the treatment and management of kidney diseases).
“We went to Custom hospital, where the doctor sent me for an Echo scan in Area 11, Abuja, saying it is not normal for a small girl to be so Hypertensive. The scan showed that my kidneys are bad”
”I continued treatment until I got married in 2009 and had a son in 2010. Then my kidneys had packed up. I was still managing it until 2013 when I was told I must be on dialysis twice every week to live. My husband abandoned me and our son and I’ve been living with my parents since then until now.
Inia says living with a kidney disease is one harrowing experience better imagined that experienced.
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” It’s been hell since I started the dialysis,” she told NHO.
According to her, she spends N25,000 for a session of dialysis which she must undergo twice a week. With the injection and drugs that go with the dialysis and her routine drug for hypertension, her expenses could be up to N70, 000 every week “
“We now depend on good spirited Nigerians for dialysis because I can no longer afford it,” she told NHO in tears.
Now she must undergo a kidney transplant to stay alive. And this does not come cheap either. Doctors at the National Hospital estimates she will need about N15 million.
Her mother, Mrs Philomina Ebojie, says this has been the challenge facing the family as they pray every day not to lose her .
“We have exhausted our resources and are at the mercy of kind people for rescue,” Madam . Ebojie told NHO in an emotion-laden voice.
“Nigerians should please help us. Please don’t allow her to die,”, she pleads passionately, urging kind hearted and public spirited Nigerians and cooperate bodies to come to Inia’s aid.
In a medical report signed by consultant Nephrologist at the National Hospital, Dr Umoru M.B, stated that Inia is being managed for end stage Renal disorder and has been on renal replacement therapy via Hemodialysis for the past 3 years.
The report confirms that said she undergoes Hemodialysis twice weekly, saying however she would benefit from definitive management with Renal transplant.
Inia says this is well beyond her and the family. She’s however hopeful that kind hearted Nigerians and even the international community would come to her aid so she could be a mother she craved to be to her son.
“I need help, please come to my aid,” she pleads.
