Baby with tumour clocks two months in pains

His mother, 30 year old Aishatu Abubakar, has also not known any relief from anguish since she was delivered of little Ishaka in that condition. “I went through much pain during labour to deliver my son. But that is nothing compared to the anguish from the feeling that my son is under perpetual pain,” Aishatu […]

His mother, 30 year old Aishatu Abubakar, has also not known any relief from anguish since she was delivered of little Ishaka in that condition. “I went through much pain during labour to deliver my son. But that is nothing compared to the anguish from the feeling that my son is under perpetual pain,” Aishatu tearfully told our reporter, at her residence in the B.A.D. area of Lafia, Nasarawa state.

 

Aishatu put to bed under the care of a concerned nurse in her one-room apartment. She was attending ante natal clinic at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), where she hoped to put to bed, but could not due to the strike action by doctors of that hospital.

The strike action by the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) in the state, entered its sixth week and the one by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), entered its fourth week, at the time of writing this report, crippling the health sector in the state.

This situation has affected many patients, including Aishatu, who rely solely on public health facilities for healthcare needs. Like many patients, Aishatu can not to afford the high cost of the private hospitals around. Therefore, she turned to the services of a nurse living in the same neighbourhood along Rice Mill Road in the shanties of B.A.D for medical attenton.

However, the nurse is not a surgeon thus can only do little to relieve Isiaka of his pain which needs only surgery to treat. The parents headed to the specialist hospital, but twice, the gates were slammed on their face. “We were not allowed to go in. The gatemen shut us out. We wanted to see the Chief Medical Director – whether he can be of help to our situation, or at least advise. But we were turned back at the gates”, the mother told Weekly Trust.

“So we returned home”, she said, adding “and we have lived like this with our son in severe pains for two months now.”

This reporter spent some time with the family and observed that for hours, little Ishaka cried. He cried in difficulty, pausing only at few intervals. “I have to change his position at short intervals so that we can find short relief for him”, Aishatu told this reporter, carefully holding the baby’s full body on one hand and the large tumour, on the other, interchangeably.

The tumour is almost four times the baby’s head. It looks at first glance like he has two heads; one large one, which is the tumour, hanging at the back of the real head. The tumour – robust and shiny, has grown much faster than all other parts of Ishaka’s body, the mother disclosed. “It also has a large wound”, she said, turning it round for this reporter to see.

The wound on the tumour has healed, but the scar is still fragile and is being tended to at home. The scar runs horizontal and looks like a crack on a surface when the baby is placed facing up.

The mother said the potion of the tumour that cracked was visible at birth. “It burst and began to open up into an injury a few days after birth.” Later it grew deeper, almost splitting the tumour into two.”

She said a private clinic in Shabu, a small settlement on the outskirts of Lafia, treated the wound on the tumour. A top official of the state ministry of health where she and her husband have gone to in search of assistance directed her to the clinic, which treated the wound.

The same ministry official showed enormous concern and took up the matter officially but government’s bureaucracy is said to be stalling action. Our investigation has shown that a memo has been raised with the permanent secretary who is following-up the matter to ensure the commissioner signs it. The memo is seeking Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma’s approval for the ministry to bear the burden of flying the baby abroad for surgical treatment. The commissioner, Dr. Bawa Abimiku, a medical doctor himself, has however, not been on seat to attend to the memo.

Ishaka’s parents have also been following up, to find out the level the ministry has reached in its promise to bring relief to their child.

Our reporter gathered, it has been more than a week since the memo was raised the same period in which the State Executive Council (SEC), saddled with approving such memos, has twice sat. The commissioner, as a member of the cabinet, is also a member of SEC. Inquiries at his office show that he has not been on seat as he has been part of the governor’s team going round the state, campaigning for Doma’s re-election in the April election.

Dr. Abimiku, the commissioner, however, spoke to Weekly Trust on phone. He confirmed the ministry has not yet deliberated on the memo, but explained that it is due to delays getting a quotation from India where government hopes to send the baby for surgery. He said the ministry has received a quotation from Israel, showing that about N29 million will be needed to carry out the surgery, but added that “we want to see what the quotation from India will look like.” He expressed government’s concern and readiness to help Ishaka assuring that “they have taken over the responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Ishaka’s parents have run to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, Zaria after a concerned person raised funds for them. At Shika, the patient will receive two stages of operation at the cost of N90,000 and N30,000 for the first stage and N60,000 for the second stage. But the parents said they will need nothing less than N300,000, to cover the operation, feeding, transportation and miscellaneous expenditure.

The February 21 quotation from the Senior Registrar, Neurosurgeon, Dr. Sale Danjuma, which was made available to Weekly Trust, shows that Ishaka will require, at the first stage, “excision of Enceptualocele…. Drugs,… and investigation”, while the second stage will entail “Venticulo Peritoneal shunt including drugs and investigation.”

The parents have taken the quotation to the ministry, and are being attended to, though, they claim not to have heard anything yet from there.

Isiaka’s parents have also sought assistance from Taimako, a cancer clinic which is part of the Nasarawa State First Lady’s pet project, yet have met with unquantifiable disappointment. The parents had gone there seeking attention to their plight. But the official there told them such gestures are no more part of the scope of Taimako.

Ishaka is the sixth child of Abubakar and Aishatu, a poor couple living on the meager proceeds of a carpentry vocation. However, the father  he has been able to provide for his large family without asking for any assistance, until. Ishaka’s congenital illness. He hopes with prayers to God that he will find help.