From boil to cancer: A student’s 15-year battle to stay alive

For 24-year-old Temitayo Abayomi Lawal, what he got on the eve of 2004 as a New Year present was misery instead of gifts wrapped in fancifully decorated paper. And, most unfortunately for him, the misery has dogged his life. The genesis of Lawal’s pitiable condition was a seemingly innocuous accident he was involved in on […]

For 24-year-old Temitayo Abayomi Lawal, what he got on the eve of 2004 as a New Year present was misery instead of gifts wrapped in fancifully decorated paper. And, most unfortunately for him, the misery has dogged his life.

The genesis of Lawal’s pitiable condition was a seemingly innocuous accident he was involved in on his way back from church after a cross-over programme. From what he thought were minor bruises he sustained on his left leg, the young man had undergone more than 20 surgeries, and he still counting, without heal.

Lawal tearfully narrated his ordeal, “On December 31, 2004, I was coming back from the cross-over service in church, with my mother and sister, at about 11pm. At the toll gate in Ota, Ogun State, we boarded a motorcycle. Along the line, the motorcycle tumbled and we all fell. I sustained bruises on my left leg.

“I was nine years old then. In August 2005, a growth appeared with intense pain on the leg where I had bruises the previous year.  It began growing and we initially thought it was just a boil. So, sometimes, we would just massage it with warm water based on what people suggested,”

“After a while, the growth grew bigger to the size of an egg. We met a nurse in a private hospital at Agege and she took us to see a doctor. At the hospital, I did a surgery in September 2006. I got better and went back to my normal life.

“However, in 2008, the growth came back while a new one started growing on my left thigh, just above my knee. I had to undergo another surgery at Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos, on both places on the same spot where I had had the earlier surgery, as well as another one on another part of the leg. The test carried out on me at the Gbagada Hospital before the surgery diagnosed neurofibroma.

“In 2011, the growth returned and I had to undergo surgery again in September 2012 in another hospital at Ilaro, Ogun State.

“The leg seemed to have gotten back to normal. But in July 2013, it came back again, with a new one on the left side of my groin. In 2014, I had to travel to Benin Republic to have another surgery. I actually underwent 18 surgeries there just to get it out. The growth on my knee grew so big and the skin became too soft that they had to cut part of my skin on my right thigh to cover it up.

“This time, I returned to school. After some time, the part that was grafted began tearing and the tumour started growing again. I had to be dressing it every day as it was continuously bleeding. I ran two biopsies last year and some other scans. I was supposed to go for a surgery last year, but the bill had become too much for my family to handle.”

A letter signed by Dr B. O. Mofikoya, a consultant plastic surgeon with the Department of Surgery, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), stated that Lawal was first seen at the hospital on November 16, 2016 with a history of recurrent left thigh swelling that dates back to 17 years, noting that he had had several excision biopsies for this lesion.

The letter also showed that clinical evaluation revealed a firm mass in the left thigh. “There were palpable ipsilateral inguinal lymph nodes. Imaging studies showed a large lesion encasing the deep femoral vessels on computed tomographic angiography. An incisional biopsy done on July 10, 2018 confirmed a Neurofibroma on histopathology. Though, clinically, a possibility of sarcomatous change is being considered on clinical grounds, Mr Lawal is being planned for further investigation with a magnetic resonance imaging and later a staged excision, depending on the definitive diagnosis,” the letter reads.

An estimate cost of surgery prepared and signed by the Head, Corporate Services Division, LUTH, K. O. Otuneme, showed Lawal would need for the new round of surgery the sum of N3,076,708, which did not include the cost of radiotherapy and chemotherapy after the surgery.

Neurofibromatosis, according to Mayo Clinic, is a genetic disorder that causes tumours to form on nerve tissue. These tumours can develop anywhere in the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord and nerves.

Lawal, who lost his father when he was barely two years old, said he had so far undergone about 25 surgeries costing over N6m, funded by his mother, with assistance from churches.

“I lost my dad in 1997. My mother used to be a teacher in Lagos State before she was laid off a few years ago. Now she is a food vendor. My medical bill is really telling on her and she practically does not have anywhere to turn to anymore for help,” he sobbed.

This challenge did not only affect Lawal’s health, it also caused him to drop out of school in 2017 in his second year at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.

He said, “I had to drop out of school in ND II because I was studying a very tough course, Mechanical Engineering, and at that point I could not concentrate nor participate in anything pertaining to my course anymore due to my health challenge.

“When I stopped schooling, because I didn’t want to stay idle, I rekindled my passion for fashion and I started running the clothing line. Later on, this also began to take a toll on me, so I diverted into graphics design, which I felt was the only thing I could do without idling around. I started designing logos and other graphics for people.”

Our reporter, who had a chat with Lawal, observed he was bleeding from some spots on the left leg and had to be cleaning himself at intervals. He told our reporter that he still felt severe pain and couldn’t walk nor stand for over a long period.

“Because everything I do that requires my strength causes me pain, I spend most of my time on the bed and I barely sleep in the night too due to pain. I am tired of this condition. I live my life in perpetual pain. I do not know why I have to suffer this way in life as there is no history of cancer in my family.

“I have always wanted to be a psychologist, but now I cannot achieve any of my dreams. This health challenge has restrained me from a lot of things. I can’t do things my mates are doing. Right now, all I just want is to get my life back and start from somewhere,” he wept profusely.

Lawal is appealing to Nigerians with the wherewithal to come to his aid and help him with the fund to go for the necessary new round of surgery that he was hopeful would not only put him back fully on his feet, it would also save his life.

“All that the hospital is trying to do now is to study my condition in order to know exactly how to treat it. The N4m I am begging Nigerians to help me raise is to cover the surgery, it doesn’t cover the main treatment,” he explained.