SOME might call this a miracle, others
might say she is favoured, but whichever
category you’ve chosen to classify this, it
is however interesting to know that this
young girl Binta Danjuma, 17, could walk
again after being paralyzed for over six years by a strange illness termed
“Tuberculosis (TB) of the spine”. Findings by Saturday Vanguard revealed
that the girl in question was born
without any disability or illness as such.
She took the necessary immunisation as
a child and health care treatment the
parents could afford, but at a stage in her life Binta started missing her steps, and
at 11, she lost control of her legs
completely. This deprived her of mobility,
thereby denying her education. The awful situation placed Binta’s
parents in a tight position. The family,
who couldn’t even afford three square
meals in a day, was completely helpless,
dashing hopes of any medical care for the
fourth daughter out of the six. *Binta *Binta Consequently, the father deserted the
family, remarried and moved to
Nasarawa State with his new wife,
leaving Binta with her mother and other
siblings, to live with their grandfather,
Baba Ibrahim Ladalo in Gaube village, a small community in the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT, Abuja. Two years later, a Non Governmental
Organization, Action Aid Nigeria in
partnership with Society for Community
Development, SCD, came across Binta’s
case during its child message collection in
2011 and took it up. The Programme Advisor Action Aid, Mr
Albert Pam, who was among the team
that intervened in Binta’s case, while
speaking exclusively to Saturday
Vanguard narrated their experience in
helping Binta access quality health care facilities, from the Abuja National
Hospital. His words, “We have about 98 children in
Gaube community that supporters
actually provide some funding for us to
do activities. Binta is one of the children.
When this was reported to us by the
partner SCD we flagged it off with management which they approved, so I
went there and saw the way she was. “We did a preliminary assessment and
discovered that they were very poor and
could not even afford food to eat talk less
of finding medication for her.In fact, the
general conclusion in the community was
that it was a witch that slapped her, so, she was possessed or something because
suddenly she would lose control of her
legs and won’t be able to walk and
would stay there for 10 to 20minutes
before it will come back again.She has
this friend Jumai that is always with her, so when it happens Jumai will now stand
by her when she gains strength again she
will get up and start going. “We also did preliminary questioning and
even went to the primary health centre,
to find out whether they were aware of
such situation and they said no, that she
has never been taken to the
hospital.They just concluded and then resolved that maybe it was faith, so she
should just remain like that until maybe
she dies, it was really a very sad
situation. “One of our focal points was that, we
needed her to get on her feet, we
wanted her to go back to school and
continue learning, because it has
implication for our women and our
children’s lives, and for her as a human being, she shouldn’t be deprived of
education because of her condition.We
also work with persons with disability so
our passion was as an organization, as a
person, we are emotionally attached to
the situation. “This is a human being that because of
her situation, and the kind of family and
community she found herself, the future
can just die off like that, so, we now said
the best thing we can do is see how we
can support her access to health care, very advanced health care for her
condition, and let us investigate and see
if it is something that can spread within
the community, we should be able to deal
with it and put an end to it.Those were
some of the inspirations that we had. “We took it up, first and foremost after
the preliminary assessment we met with
the chief in the area discussed with him
and told him our intention.So we took her
to the National Hospital,it took a long
while.We ran different tests on her the most expensive test was MRI.For almost
six months,she was strictly on test, and
some preliminary medication, because
they had not really discovered what
really was the issue. “Finally the test came out and it was
discovered that it is not spreadable, and
that it is a rare condition, so they said the
best they can advice, is to put her on
some physiotherapy, and this was like
nine months after the whole thing.So we said okay we should just put her in some
physiotherapy for the next six months,
then they collected some medication that
they will be collecting every other week. “When the test came out they said there
is an option to do surgery outside this
country and then even that option comes
with a 50 50 percent option of being
alive or even regaining her mobility or
losing it completely, and it is irreversible, so we were like if that is the only option
we have, then, what is the sence of
actually embarking on such high risk
procedure? “They were saying something about
some of the vertebra and some of the
spinal bones were deformed, as a result
of the disease, they now said to get this
girl back to walk again might not really
be possible, so there wasn’t any categorical statement, regarding
whether she will be able to walk or she
won’t be able to walk, they didn’t
mention anything categorical concerning
that. “Finally, they suggested we get her a
wheelchair.Getting her a wheelchair,
one, the mother will have a relief from
backing her, because she usually backs
her in the hospital from one ward to
another. Two, she will become a little bit independent, and three; she will surely
get back to school which of cause we
have been anticipating. “We did the presentation of a brand new
wheelchair, and since we were
disengaging from providing further
physiotherapy from the National
Hospital, we put them through how to do
some simple massaging of the legs at home.She was very excited and promised
to get back to school immediately”. “When I heard the news that Binta can
walk again, as a person I was completely
dumbfounded, because before I went I
actually called my boss Hajia Suwaiba
Yakubu to go and find out. Immediately,
she went there, the first thing she also asked was how did it happen? And the
narration was that ,immediately Binta
started seeing people’s care, not people
in the street or the environment, as in,
seeing fresh people not from the area
every day, showing her care, taking her out of the community, maybe that
actually pushed her to begin to say yes I
can live.Obviously the mother was all out
expressing the fact that immediately
Binta started rolling that wheelchair to
school, she saw a new determination in her face, that this girl wanted to live , not
just live, but stand up on her feet and
walk, and apparently the medication
might have helped some bones, some
muscles began to have life again no one
can actually say. “Binta said she wants to be a doctor for
whatsoever reason. She wants to be a
doctor so that she can help people.Out of
forty something in the class, she is
coming first, that shows that she reads
her books.She is very intelligent and her teachers attest to that. Binta’s class teacher at the Local
Education Authority, LEA, Primary School,
Gaube, Mr. Enesiok Idopeyen, also
acknowledged the impressive
performance of Binta in his class, and
noted some of the subjects which Binta finds very interesting. “I have been Binta’s class teacher since
last year, and she was on a wheelchair at
that time. Binta is in primary 5, and
based on her performance in class, Binta
is so wonderful, she is really upgrading
her skills in academics in the sense that one of her best subjects is mathematics,
and I am the mathematics teacher and I
am also taking her basic science. “We have other teachers that are going
under rotational subjects taking social
studies and others but based on her
performance last semester that just
passed she took first position and apart
from the first term I just told you that she took first position.Presently she is really
working hard and she is an intelligent girl
for real because at times based on her
disability at that time I am even
surprised that such people will have such
high intelligence.” Idopeyen stated. Binta, who seems to be an introvert,
while narrating her feelings in Gbagi
language expressed her gratitude to God
for His good works in her life, and also
appreciated those that saw her through
her ordeal. “I was not happy whenever I found
myself on wheelchair, I will feel sad
seeing my mates walking on their two
feet, but I thank God that now that I am
walking, I am happy to join my
classmates and I can now move from one place to another, I give God the glory, I
feel like a complete human being and this
has brought joy to my heart,” she said.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/i-never-knew-i-could-walk-again-binta/