Inside the artificial legs workshop

At seven, Miracle has mastered the art of living with one leg. She was born that way. Although she walks with the aid of a companion – an elbow crutch – she has not allowed that to slow down her activities. She runs around with her mates at school, and even plays football using her […]

At seven, Miracle has mastered the art of living with one leg. She was born that way.

Although she walks with the aid of a companion – an elbow crutch – she has not allowed that to slow down her activities.

She runs around with her mates at school, and even plays football using her only leg.

“She’s unstoppable,” her grandmother said.

At birth, her parents took the shock of a one-legged baby with good hearts.

“The doctor said we would know what to do when she grew up,” Miracle’s grandmother said.

Her parents visited an orthopaedic workshop and tucked in a remote part of Chanchaga on the outskirts of Minna, Niger State, to get her some elbow crutches.

The workshop is run by The Leprosy Mission (TLM), Nigeria, which has been churning out prosthesis and orthosis – wheelchairs, manual tricycles, kneeling crutches, spinal braces since 2000.

Initially, the focus of the TLM was on people affected with leprosy, but it now takes care of people living with all forms of disability.

Those affected with leprosy are often classified as people with grade two disabilities. And at least 13 percent out of 3,087 new cases of leprosy was detected last year.

“It means the infection has been on for five years,” explained Pius Ogbu, operations manager for TLM, adding that the bacteria that cause leprosy deaden nerves in body extremes – hands, foot and face.

The loss of sensation means that people affected by leprosy can’t feel pain, heat, cold, as they attempt to carry on normal lives – farming, working, walking.

The injuries that come with daily work bring no pain, and no pain means more work, more injuries that become progressively infected until limbs begin to rot off and require amputation.

Close to the workshop is a general hospital where surgeries for people living with leprosy have stopped after a dedicated theatre became nonfunctional.

It was learnt that funding from the TY Danjuma Foundation through 2012 and 2013 helped renovate the hospital.

Doctors at the general hospital turn back patients suspected to have leprosy or needing surgeries, but the theatre at Chanchaga has suffered.

In its wake, the workshop is picking up the pieces for people like Umar Babuga.

He rides on a bike through a rough road, dismounts, walks straight into the workshop and is easy to talk to. He is also a technician at the workshop.

“Some people don’t even know we are here. People can leave Minna, go to Kano to get prosthesis and then come back here with problems.

“I’m using one leg. Would you know from looking at me? I got an artificial leg here, where I am working,’’ Babuga said, lifting one leg of his trousers to show his artificial leg. He had leprosy and underwent an amputation.

At the workshop, there are tools for the production of artificial legs. At one corner is also a consulting room where workers examine patients and educate them on their desire for prosthesis.

“It isn’t just new clients; those already using prosthesis from different places also come here because they have seen what we are doing. Our goal is to bring out ability from disability,” Christopher Ogbonna, a prosthesis and orthosis technician at the workshop said.

 According to him, when the workshop took care of only the people affected with leprosy, some clients had to disguise as leprosy patients so that they would work for them.

The range of prosthesis and orthosis needed by people affected by leprosy differs, and much of the work is free for them – paid for by TLM.

But it costs up to N150,000 to build a single artificial limb needed after a limb amputation. TLM estimates it will need at least N50 million for care, mobility aids and empowerment each year.

International funding is dwindling, and it is looking to fundraisers to raise money for its work in some five states where it works under Nigeria’s tuberculosis and leprosy control programme.

Only Kebbi, in about three years, has put money into its tuberculosis and leprosy unit on the strength of an agreement with humanitarian service providers.

Old and new cases of leprosy abound, but not enough are detected, experts worry. Drugs donated by Novartis for global use go through the World Health Organisation (WHO) into Nigeria for distribution to states.

The drugs help to cure leprosy if detected early. The deformities that show up in late-detected cases need workshops like that tucked away in Chanchaga, where Miracle and her grandmother are visiting.

It was noticed that a stub at the end of Miracle’s crutches has worn out, and she fell while trying to walk with it.

However, it took few minutes for Babuga and other workers at the workshop to find and fix a new stub; and she can walk again.