Please find below the story of one of the Foundation's recipients:
My name is KH and my story began in May, 2008 after my last exams at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye where I obtained a BSc. (Hons) in Industrial and Labour Relations. I was writing my dissertation when I became very ill. I looked very puffy, tired and light in complexion; I was actually much fatter than usual!
I went for a medical check-up which showed that I had ulcer and filarial worms in my body and while on treatment, I became worse.
My mother and younger brother heard about my illness they both came to me because I was in my home town taking some herbal medicine for the illness. So my brothers in U S suggested that I should be taken to Hospital to ascertain the nation of the sickness. I was taken to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). There, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney diseases (CKD).
I was shocked and devastated! I had a brief knowledge of kidney failure in relation to Steve Kadiri, the former AIT Presenter but I didn’t think it could happen to me. I wondered how I got it. I had never smoked cigarettes, drunk alcohol nor been ill-behaved in my entire life, in fact my University days were highly uneventful. Was it something I ate? Did someone do this to me? Could I have prevented this? All this thoughts ran through my head.
After series of tests, I was placed on dialysis as a temporary solution to manage the disease. Apart from being very expensive, the pain was so severe to the extent that I sometimes wanted to die but I accepted my fate and try to do away with such thoughts and find a solution to my predicament. My relatives and friends were fantastic during this time, they contributed a lot of money to me but all went on dialysis alone. I was dialyzed at the rate of N35,000 every three days for one and a half years. Imagine what that came to!
I tried to raise money for the operation but all to no avail. I wrote appeal letters to State governments, Banks, Individuals and Organizations. The Ogun State Government gave me N850, 000, the Chairman of my Local Government gave me a cheque of N250,000 and Skye bank gave me N50, 000. I thank them all for their generous support but the funds quickly dried up because kidney failure is very expensive to treat.
My case was eventually reported in the media but despite the story being published in the Newspaper and shown on television, only the money from Skye bank was paid into my account. I cried every day. Then my best friend who had been there for me traveled to India to further his education. I was left alone.
Something inspired me to write Governor Babatunde Fashola, I did, including one to his deputy and to the Ministry of Health. A few days after that day, I was called from the Ministry of Health and was directed to Gbagada General Hospital for a medical review and recommendation. They stated that I needed an urgent kidney transplant. I was also sent to St. Nicholas Hospitals to do same review and they concurred.
The Lagos State Government then offered to pay for my transplant. What joy! I was on dialysis for 3 weeks at St. Nicholas Hospital prior to the transplant. Getting a donor was also a major issue, then, after some family discussions my Mother offered to donate and thank God she was a match. Thank you Mum always for the gift you gave me and I also use this opportunity to say a big thank you to Dr. Bamgboye, he loves his patients and played a major role in my transplantation process.
At exactly 7.am on the 16th of October, 2009, my mother was taken to the theater. By 2 pm, she was in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and I was then taken into theatre to receive the new kidney. Was I afraid? Very much so. It had been a difficult and expensive journey to get here and it was not yet over. I woke up around 1 am in the ICU. I heard Dr. Shonibare say “Kunle, your operation was fine”. I was happy and told him that I had not urinated. He said I was already making urine but that it was being passed via a rubber into a bag because I had just had surgery. I recovered quickly and was discharged two weeks after the surgery.
Medication is for life after surgery consisting of drugs called immunosuppressants. These drugs stop my body from attacking and rejecting the new kidney and though I was informed of this before the surgery I did not understand how difficult it would be to purchase them. Everybody that helped me before couldn’t anymore, I guess it was because they didn’t understand that the surgery was not the end and also maybe because they had to sort out their issues too. It got to a point that I had to reduce the dosage of my drugs without my Doctor’s knowledge so that my drugs would last longer. I knew I wasn’t helping myself but what could I do? I got depressed.
I made my problem known to Dr. Bamgboye who advised me to write a letter of appeal to the Nathan Kidney Foundation. After a while, my appeal was granted and my drugs have since then been supplied regularly. I have not missed a single dose!
I thank God for everything but I still face substantial challenges. For instance I can’t hear properly which is one of the many effects of kidney failure. My doctors assure me that it will come back and I am hopeful. I still want to do my NYSC and get a good job so that I can somehow repay my Mother for her generosity.
Ultimately, I hope to help raise the awareness of Nigerians about this terrible disease and also help raise funds for the support of others.
Please, Nigerians, join this fight. We need your support.
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