…I have exhausted all I had treating her and in debts, son cries
Life in the last three years for Mrs Flora Olochemeuan Akhare has been an agonizing twirl as she battles a kidney disease, which she believes was orchestrated by the many herbs she took while trying to treat herself of diabetes.
The 49-year-old indigene of Owan West in Edo State said she was first diagnosed of diabetes about four years ago, which she decided to treat with herbs. While hoping to recover from the ailment, she developed an eye problem.
In a bid to find a lasting solution to the eye problem, Akhare, who was then residing and working in Edo State, was referred from the Maxiview Eye Clinic in Benin to the Eye Foundation in Lagos. After series of examination at the Lagos eye hospital, she was diagnosed of renal failure.
Renal failure is a condition in which the kidneys lose the ability to remove waste and balance fluids.
Entangled in her plight of having to battle three diseases at the same time, her husband delivered the killer punch when he called her last June that he was no longer interested in the marriage “and deserted me to carry my cross at the time I needed show of love and affection the most.”
That was how her 11-year-old marriage to her second husband ended. It was easy for the man to call it quits since the woman had no child for him.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs Akhare said, “It started with diabetes. In my own effort to attack the diabetes, I resorted to taking herbs and before I knew what was happening, my eyes were affected. I started managing the eye problem at Maxiview Eye Clinic in Benin from where I was referred to the Eye Foundation Hospital in Lagos for further treatment.
“At the Eye Foundation in Lagos, Dr Okonkwo said I have glaucoma and would be required to go for an eye surgery, which will cost N970,000. During the consultation, series of tests were run and I was diagnosed of renal failure (kidney disease) and has since then been on dialysis, which I go for two times in a week as against the three times a week my doctor at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) recommended, due to financial constraint.
“Sometime last year, when I was admitted at LASUTH, the doctor tried to revive my kidney. But after series of tests, it was confirmed that the disease was already at the end stage and that the only possible solution is a transplant either in Nigeria or India. For now, I go for dialysis at Clinix Healthcare Ilupeju in Lagos, and sometimes at Kidney Solution and Dialysis Centre, Ikeja,” she said.
According to Mrs Akhare, who apparently cannot do any work again to earn a living, she spends about N60,000 for each dialysis, meaning she spends N120,000 per week and about N480,000 per month. From April last year when she began dialysis till date, she has spent roughly N5.2 million.
On how she has been sourcing the money, she said, “My only son, Johnson Delight, whom I had for my first husband, has been the one helping me. But after he exhausted all he had, he resorted to begging people online to help save the life of his mother.”
Delight told Eko Trust that he owes many debts due to the money spent on his mother’s dialysis, blood transfusion, injections, drugs and hospital bills.
According to him, the breakdown given to him at the hospital showed that the cost of the kidney transplant is N12m, which would cover travelling expenses, dialysis before and after the transplant, as well as payment for drugs and injections. “I am ready to donate one of my kidneys because I don’t want my mother to die,” he cried.
The son, a business centre operator in Lagos, has called on wealthy Nigerians to come to the aid of his mother. “I am a product of a broken home and I have spent all I had, and I am even in debts. My step-father, on whose shoulder my mum would have cried, is nowhere to be found,” he lamented.
Mrs Akhare also appealed to Nigerians with the wherewithal to assist her so that she can live a normal life again. “For years, I have not been living a normal life. My life has been characterised by severe agony. I need help so that I can be well,” she begged.
