By Ruth Okwumbu
For most people who have, at one time or the other, had the misfortune of suffering from a dangerous, life-threatening and finance-consuming ailment, the beauty is being able to come out strong and healthy, with a testimony filled with gratitude. About a year and a half ago, the first set of kidney transplants were done at Delta State University Teaching Hospital, (DELSUTH) Oghara, with the twin cases of a mother to child transplant, and a child to a mother transplant. Coincidentally, for both cases the children were in their early twenties and the mothers around their fifties. the result of both transplants was in two fold; a fifty four year old mother with a twenty year old kidney, and a bubbling young man in his early twenties, with a kidney more than twice his age.
Both cases had their peculiarities, but for the young Oghenetega Joseph Ahawha and his donor mother Mrs. Martha Ahawha, it can only be described as a testimony of gratitude to God for the success of the operation, and to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, for lifting the financial burden of the operation off the shoulder of the parents, as well as being present throughout the entire process to give moral support to the patients.
In an interactive follow-up session made possible by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health Monitoring, Dr. Rukevwe Ugwumba, mother and son allowed journalists into their experience throughout the ailment, as well as life after the successful surgery in February 2014. While a lot of publicity preceded and followed the surgery, not much has been said about how the donors and recipients have fared for over a year after the surgery.
Oghenetega, who is now a 200 level student of Computer Science at the World Mission University, recounted to journalists that his situation had begun in the early quarter of 2012 with body pains and swollen feet. Both had been dismissed by his parents as nothing to worry about, and he had been left to go back to his schooling in Niger Delta University (NDU) where he was studying fishery. When the situation persisted still after some months, he visited his Medical Doctor-Uncle at Port-Harcourt, after which he was placed on some medications after a few tests.
A few months down the line, his situation did not get better, and by the time he visited home, his mother panicked and rushed him to the hospital where it was confirmed that his both kidneys had failed. According to him, I found it hard to believe because I was not a heavy drinker, in fact I only drank on rare occasion. I was referred to the Delta State University Teaching Hopsital, Oghara, and it was confirmed again. It was as if I had been sentenced to death, but my mum would not let me give up. She kept on praying for me and encouraging me. I went online and read up stories about it, and it gave me a little hope that I could come out alive.
Discovery of the ailment, according to Mr. Ahawha, however signaled the beginning of endless spending as his both parents practically gave out all they had to ensure that he got adequate medical attention. we were told that I had to go on haemo-dialysis two to three times a week for a while to see if the kidney would pick up again. From then, it was one spending after the other. A session of the dialysis was to cost N23,000 back then, and it was still the cheapest in the country. After the dialysis, I would be given an injection to help increase my PCV level, and that injection cost an additional N8,000. This had continued until the government had intervened, subsidizing the amount by over 75 percent and easing the financial burden on the family.
His mother, Mrs. Uhawha had this to say, my husband and I both closed our bank accounts to meet up with the cost of dialysis twice or three times a week. Even when we tried to reduce the frequency of the dialysis, the mere sight of him struggling for breath and being unable to sleep, sent us running in search of more money. There was a night when I woke up beside him to find out that some sort of water was coming out of his nose and mouth and he was gasping for breath. We had to rush to the hospital about 1;30am that night and I thank God the staff were here to attend to us.
We had financial support from some relatives and church members, but all the money kept going in for more medications and dialysis. We just kept spending and spending and it began to seem as if we were abandoning our other children, but there was no way we could sit back and watch our first son die without doing all we could to help him she related.
Explaining his sojourn with haemo-dialysis, he described it as a process where the blood was filtered to remove the body fluids “ a task which ought to have been executed by the kidney to ensure proper circulation in the body. The importance of this process is so magnified in the case of kidney failure, such that failure to regularly filter out the fluids came with its consequence. There was hardly any option of deciding not to do it because of the costs or because of inconveniences. When I fail to do it frequently, I had difficulty sleeping. The body fluids come up my body system, sometimes making it hard to breath. Once I lie down at night, the fluids sometimes come up and my face gets swollen. Sometimes in the middle of the nights, I had fluids coming out through my nose and mouth, and making it hard for me to breath. There were days I could not venture out of the house due to swollen limbs, and my water intake reduced drastically. While his life was being prolonged by this act, the torture remained.
As would have been expected, his social life was badly hit by the ailment as he could no longer hang out with friends or go out for social events. He lamented that most of his friends started avoiding him, barely called or visited to check him up. His medical condition, thus, marked a turn-around in his life
After months of enduring one dialysis after the other, the head of the Renal unit, Dr. Odonmeta had recommended a kidney transplant to be done in India. According to Mrs. Uhawha, as soon as I heard the cost of flying him abroad, I nearly shouted. We had already spent everything we had on dialysis for about eight months, so there was no hope of raising the money from anywhere. I started praying about it, and after some time, the Doctor called us to tell us that all we had to do was get a donor as the Governor had agreed to bear the cost and fly in experts to do it here.
Getting the donor turned out to be another hurdle to cross, as most people would not be ready to stake out one of their kidney, on the presumption that it would serve as a ˜spare tyre™ if one of their kidney got damaged. After confirming from the Doctor that it had to come from a close relative to ensure a better match, Mrs. Uhawha showed her undying motherly love by volunteering to stand as donor. Oghenetega admitted that he had been scared and tried discouraging her, as he did not want to place her life on the line.
On the day of the transplant, Mrs. Ahawha narrated that she was first operated on, and had prayed with her Pastor over the phone before going into the theatre. For Oghenetega, the story goes thus the Governor was here and he assured me that nothing would go wrong. My mother was first operated on before He injected me at about 10;30am and I fell asleep waking up by 5:30pm to find out that the operation had been completed successfully. I can™t thank the governor enough. He gave me a second chance to live. He made the finance available and was also there to ensure that it went smoothly
Life for the mother has returned to normal since after the surgery, but not quite for the young Mr. Ahawha. Even though they have receiving free check-up since then, he had been placed on a medication, which he lamented is eating deep into his family finances.
I have been on medication since February last year. Each packet of the drugs last four days, and each packet costs N18,000 for one. Since last year, my parents have to spend this amount of money every month. I am appealing to the government to also assist in subsidizing the cost of the drugs because there is no job one can have where it will be comfortable to remove such money every month he appealed.
Mother of the boy, Mrs. Martha Uhawha was also full of thanks to the state governor, the hospital management and church members who had encouraged them through the tough times, adding that they are always in her prayers. She further stated that she had been living a normal life since after the surgery and called on mothers who found themselves in similar situations to donate to their children if they are able to, as it has no bad effects on the donor.
Special Adviser to the Governor on health Monitoring, Dr. Rukevwe Ugwumba while briefing journalists after the interaction with the patients, expressed optimism that the project would not die, especially with the Governor-Elect being a medical doctor as well. She noted that before the governor™s intervention, kidney failure had been a very serious issue, sometimes consuming a huge part of the grant given to the health sector by the government. When the Governor came in, the dialysis was subsidized by 75 percent, which is the cheapest you can find in the whole country. With that a lot of lives have been saved because the patients can now afford to do the dialysis as frequently as needed. They no longer have to worry about the cost.
Even though the Governor likes to be remembered for the free maternal and health care which has saved the lives of millions of children and reduced maternal mortality in the state, I know that awarding free kidney transplant to these people who could not afford to fly to India for the surgery is one of the greatest achievements. Prior to this, all patients of renal transplant had to pay about N80,000 to N100,000 in different hospitals across the country for a session of haemo-dialysis, but the governor gave a grant to subsidize it as well as other drugs and injections taken by the patients before, during and after the transplant. She said.
She added that there is no special criterion for selecting beneficiaries, adding that another session is underway. They should also have donors who are healthy, because this is one operation where we begin with one unhealthy person and one healthy person, with the aim of ending up with two healthy people. For those to benefit from the government sponsorship of the transplant, it would have been confirmed that they truly cannot afford it.
