SINCE he was born March5, 2000, 13-year-old
Uchenna Ekezie has lived with a genital
deformity. He was born with what is described
in medical parlance as maldeveloped external
genitalia. In lay terms, he has no visible
external male reproductive organs whatsoever.
All he has to show is a rudimentary stump that
is less than an inch long.
No thanks to this congenital abnormality,
Uchenna can not urinate normally,. Worse
still, his hopes of biologically fathering
children in the future currently hang in the
balance. Although Uchenna, who hails from the Ejike Ezekie family of Umuariam Obowo LGA of ImoState, has undergone series of major surgeries at the Federal Medical Centre,Umuahia, he requires a total of N4.5 million to undergo two more outstanding surgeries to complete his restoration.
The first surgery is for correction of the continuous dripping of urine, while the second surgery is for elongation of the rudimentary stump.It was gathered that in the attempt to to correct the birth defect, Uchenna suffered further damage in certain veins and arteries around his genital area.
A medical evaluation by an IndianHospital in
Abuja sent to Fortis Escorts Hospital, New
delhi, India, from the Department of Surgery,Federal Medical Centre,
QueenElizabethHospital, Umuahia, explained
that Uchenna had the first surgery eight days after birth.
In the report, signed by Dr. E.N. Agwu on
behalf of Dr. G.U. Ugbam, the Chief
Consultatnt Paediatric Surgeon, the procedure, known as posterior iliacosteotomy, was followed by the repair of the exomphalons at two months of age, and followed to month later by repair of epispadias.
At four months of age, Uchenna had a
herniotomy and bladder augmentation at six
months. All surgeries wer carried out at the
FMC, Umuahia. Uchenna's father, Celestine,
told Good Health Weekly that efforts to seek
financial assistance from the ImoState
government has not yielded fruit.
Speaking through the Queen of Peace Catholic
Church, Umuariam, Obowo, LGA, Celestine
observed that an estimated bill of $12,000
(about N2 million) has been issued by the
hospital for the corrective surgery, but
observed that an additional N2.5 million was
being sought to cover medicals, return
tickets, evaluations, tests and post surgeries
and rehabilitation.
The Indian hospital is all set to correct this
abnormality and restore Uchenna's external
genitalia to normal, but the obvious financial
constraint is a stumbling block. Lamenting his
son's plight, Celestine appealed for urgent
financial assiatance to enable the life-saving
surgeries to commence.
"We have no kobo or even a fraction of this
amount. Already we have spent all we have on
his treatment and the family is broke. I even
had to sell off all the cement bocks I moulded
to build about four rooms, as well as the old
car I was managing to provide for my family.
We are now completely dependent on the
response of generous Nigerians to out plea.
Please help provide Uchenna with a better
quality of life and offer us hope in
humanity."
•If you are touched and wish to assist
Uchenna, kindly send your donations to
Celestine Ejike Ekezie, First Bank of Nigeria
Plc, 3303010231336, or call 08060658913 and
08136506718 for more details.
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