- Mother seeks N5m lifeline for surgery in India
Sixteen-year-old Theophilus Eniola is currently battling with a life-threatening strange bone disease, chronic osteomyelitis. The disease, according to medical experts, is a severe, persistent and sometimes incapacitating infection of the bone and bone marrow.
The excruciating pain the teenager goes through daily is, therefore, better imagined! Several parts of his body have been perforated by the splinters from his own bone, which, at short intervals, pierce his skin, shoot out, get dried up and eventually break off his body.
Each time this life-threatening process begins and is completed, the teenager is left with a very deep sore on that part of the body through which the dry bone shoots out and eventually breaks off. No wonder, Theophilus is covered with patches of sticking plasters used to cover the injuries sustained from the past piercing of his skin by his bone.
Now, Theophilus is writhing in serious pains from his current experience of the strange disease, with the bone of his right arm jutting out far above his shoulder! This makes it impossible for him to wear his clothes.
This current state of health has rendered him bedridden at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, where his family spends N18,000 weekly on his treatment.
Theophilus’ current situation has even become more worrisome and urgent, because, according to doctors, the surgery required to correct his health problem could only be successfully performed on him while he’s still under the age of 17! And by July next year, the critically ill teenager will reach what has now become to him and his family this dreaded age of 17.
So, he urgently requires the sum of N5million to get the corrective surgery that will address his current health problem and save him the excruciating pains and agony that he’s now going through. Theophilus, however, needs your financial support to travel to India to get the necessary relief from this lifethreatening strange disease currently ravaging his body and making life hellish for him.
Narrating his ordeal on his hospital bed, the teenager explained that experiencing the process usually taken by his strange health condition had become a nightmare to him.
Theophilus said, “When the bone wants to shoot out of my body, the feeling is like having a very sharp knife slicing through my skin from inside my body. As the bones grow, shoot out of my skin and cut off, another one will start growing, again. I can’t even d e s c r i b e the pain. I had to endure this terrible pain to even write my SSCE exams. I had to take a lot of injections and drugs to reduce the pains.
“I want all Nigerians to, please, help me so that I won’t die. I’m still very young and I belong to part of the future generation of this country. Please, in the name of God, help me. My family needs money, the doctors say about N5million, to get treatment for my condition in India.”
The mother of the teenager, Mrs. Folashade Eniola, similarly appealed to public-spirited Nigerians and philanthropists to save the life of her son. She said, “It all started in August 28, 2012. He woke up that day and said that he could not walk with his legs; I did not believe him.
So, I forced him to stand up but to my surprise he could not. For about three weeks, they were not able to diagnose what was wrong with him. During this time, people advised that a bone therapist should help massage the bones to reduce the pain. “Theophilus complained that the bone in his hand had broken after the massage but I did not believe him because flesh was still covering the bones then.
After two months, the disease started affecting his hand, too. It was then that the nature of the disease was diagnosed.” His mother added that it was two years after the massage that the bone in his hands began to pierce his flesh.
“It was after two years of the therapy and we have started treating him at National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbogbi, Lagos that the bone came out of the flesh. The bone currently showing outside his skin is not the first bone that grew outside his skin.
Whenever the bone grows, it will break off. All the spots where there is plaster on his body are spots where bones had grown and broken,” she said. The teenager’s mother added that she had to prevail on doctors treating her son to send his details to the Jaypee Hospital in Nodia, India.
“The doctors told me about four months ago that in India they would operate it and bring out the dry bones and they would plant something inside, which will help it heal from inside, and once it is planted in India it can be removed in Nigeria.
“My son will be 17 years by July next year, and I was told that if the surgery was not done on time we might not be able to do it again, because he has a rapid growth; they may need to cut off his hand.”
“The doctors at Igbobi sent the documents to the hospital in India and the hospital replied with the requirement for the surgery. The estimate includes; cost of transportation, feeding and hospital bill which was about N2.5 million as at the time a dollar was N200 but now people said we would need about N5million because of the increase in the value of dollar so that we would not be stranded,” she said.
Eniola, however, expressed her disappointment with the the secretary to the general overseer of her church (names withheld) for allegedly preventing her from presenting her son’s case to the church leader and getting some financial assistance towards his treatment abroad.
“I had an appointment with the General Overseer of my Church since August and I was hoping that he would be able to help us out in terms of finance, but unfortunately, when I got there on Sunday, the people at the entrance to his office prevented me from going in to see him. I pleaded but they did not listen,” she said.
If you are touched by Theophilus Eniola’s story and you want to contribute towards his getting well, please contact The Point.
