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HELP A 3-year Old by fbabs(m): 1:07am On Jan 31, 2016 |
Falayi
Life for three-year-old Darasimi Ogunwunmi has
become a daily dose of agony and struggles for
survival.
Clinging to life at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, Idi-Araba Lagos, Darasimi’s survival has
been due to his sheer will to live, doctors say.
At the moment, doctors have said Darasimi would
require another round of surgery for the repair of
his throat and stomach which cumulatively would
cost about N2.5m.
The bouncing and active little boy, whose parents
referred to as the joy of their lives, has been
reduced to a sack of bone and skin as he is being fed
through a tube on his hospital bed.
Few months ago, Darasimi was a normal kid running
to school and running back home into the arms of his
mother; today he cannot even drink water.
In November 2015, Darasimi, a Kindergarten One
pupil of Fahsal Children’s School, Ilupeju Estate,
Idiroko, Ogun State, drank caustic soda left lying
carelessly around his class while he was thirsty.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the proprietor of Fahsal,
Mrs. Fausat Abubakar, recently added soap making
into her line of business but rather than remove the
production far from the reach of her pupils, the soap
is being produced right beside their classrooms.
On November 19, the worst happened when
Darasimi became thirsty and his teachers turned a
deaf ear to his incessant cry for water.
That day, Saturday PUNCH learnt that there was a
Parent-Teacher Association meeting at the school
during which it was announced that the school was to
commence soap-making in the school premises.
Part of the caustic soda already mixed and left
around was what Darasimi drank from.
They only realised what had happened when the boy
was found outside his classroom crying and bleeding
from the mouth.
The boy’s mother, Toyin, a food vendor in the area,
said teachers in the school told her that liquid caustic
soda was left in a bowl and the boy took a cup of
what he thought was water and drank from it.
The lethal liquid destroyed the boy’s throat and
stomach, doctors said.
According to a research report published by the Sau
Paulo Medical Journal, caustic substances cause
tissue destruction through liquefaction or coagulation
reactions.
Experts say caustic soda, which is also referred to as
sodium hydroxide or lye is an acid that breaks down
tissues faster than many other chemicals.
They say complications from drinking caustic soda
include esophagitis (inflammation of the
oesophagus), esophageal stenosis (a narrowing of the
lumen of the oesophagus that slows or impedes the
passage of fluid and foods) and progression to
cancer, fistulas, perforations, stomach lesions, brain
abscesses, and death.
Toyin said after her son drank the dangerous acid,
nobody from his school made any attempt to call her
or her husband until a boy arrived from school and
explained that something had happened to Darasimi.
Toyin told Saturday PUNCH, “Darasimi goes to school
with another little boy every morning. It was the
little boy who came home and told us that Darasinmi
had been taken to the hospital. I could not
understand what the boy was saying because none of
his teachers called us to say anything was wrong with
him.
“I sell food around the school and could not
understand why nobody tried to even alert me to
what happened as his teachers took him to the
hospital.
“My husband and I rushed to the school and some of
his teachers said they were just about to call us. I
told them they were wicked people because they
only said that because they saw us.
“They told us he was at a hospital in Idiroko and we
rushed there. We found the proprietor with few
other teachers in the school. They were crying when
they saw us. I quickly grabbed the woman and asked
what had happened to my boy.”
Toyin and her husband rushed inside the hospital to
find their boy being treated by some doctors.
After a few hours, they were told to take the boy to
another General Hospital at Sango, it was learnt.
Toyin said they were about to board an ambulance
that would take them to the second hospital when
the proprietor of the school handed them N10,000
for the treatment of the boy.
“We quickly returned the money to her and told her
that we were in it together. She could not just hand
us N10,000 and say goodbye to us. We left for the
hospital together,” she said.
At Sango, the worried parents were told that the
hospital could not treat such an extensive problem.
They were referred to the Federal Medical Centre in
Abeokuta, where the boy was admitted and treated
for another six days. Again, the hospital referred
them for more advanced treatment at the LUTH.
Toyin said, “We got to LUTH on November 26 and
after few days of treatment, they told us that we
needed N65,000 for an initial surgery, which was to
take place on December 1.
“A day before the surgery was supposed to take
place, we had not paid and we had borrowed from
everywhere we could turn to for the initial
treatment.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that around this time,
Darasimi started to take little quantity of tea. So,
doctors decided to watch him for a few days.
The boy’s parents said the proprietor made no
further attempt to call them while several attempts
to speak with her proved abortive as she no longer
picked their calls.
Toyin said, “Sometimes, frustration would force me
to call teachers of the school to ask of the woman,
they would say she had not been to the school for a
while. Sometimes, they would say she was ill.
“We had to tell the doctors to discharge our son. We
could not work and there was no money to pay for
his treatment. Even the money for the hospital bills
was borrowed from the family of another patient.
We had to refund it after we got home.”
Few days after getting home, Saturday PUNCH learnt
that Darasimi could not ingest anything food again
and had to be taken to a health centre in Idiroko.
When the boy’s situation worsened, he had to be
taken to the General Hospital, which admitted him
for two days before referring him back to LUTH.
At LUTH, doctors said it had become imperative for
the boy to undertake the initial surgery that was put
off as the parents run from pillar to post praying for
the survival of their son.
Toyin said Abubakar later sent N15,000 with
beverages to them for the care of the boy.
After borrowing money to add to the N15,000 the
proprietor sent to them, the Ogunwunmis paid
N65,000 for the surgery of their son, who nearly
died few hours before the surgery.
Saturday PUNCH learnt the boy was found
unresponsive on the morning of the day the surgery
was to take place. He was resuscitated and the
surgery took place later that evening. Again, it was a
tough battle rousing him from his anesthetised sleep
after the surgery.
But at the moment, the doctors said the boy needs
further comprehensive surgeries that will cost
N2.5m for him to survive.
Doctors, who spoke under a condition of anonymity,
said the boy would require at least two more
surgeries. They said the boy’s stomach and
oesophagus have to be reconstructed urgently.
“They are operations that require some urgency if
the boy is to survive. The boy is just lying here.
Other than just trying to stabilise him, nothing is
being done to his case because the funds are not
forthcoming. The parents just hang around crying,”
one doctor said.
Darasinmi now lies in the Ward E4 of LUTH with
uncertain fate.
His parents are apprehensive about where to get
such a huge amount of money as they are already
indebted heavily.
“Is it our fault that we sent our son to school? We
sent him to a private school because we wanted the
best education for him despite the fact that we are
struggling financially. But now, the school has nearly
killed him,” Toyin said.
When Abubakar was contacted, her daughter said she
left her phone at home and would contact our
correspondent herself.
By the following day when she had not, our
correspondent called her again, her phone number
was switched off. When our correspondent tried
calling her again on Friday and the call went through,
she did not pick it and neither did she reply a
message sent to her.
Our correspondent contacted the Ogun State
Commissioner of Education, Mrs. Modupe Mujota,
and realised that she had not got a report about the
incident.
“Please kindly send a short brief about the incident
to my phone. We will take action immediately,” the
commissioner said.
As of the time of filing this report, it is unclear what
action has been taken on the issue.
Meanwhile, the parents have opened a bank account
in the boy’s name to help raise money for his
surgery – FCMB account no: 3528300027; account
name: Darasinmi Ogunwunmi.
Copyright PUNCH. |
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