The pathetic story of this beautiful girl broke in the Punch last year. My heart was wrenched reading it. Her parents abandoned her as an infant at LUTH 10 years ago  after discovering she had a congenital abnormality that makes her pass out body waste through only one opening. LUTH took her to an orphanage where she has found love and has been nurtured into a sharp, adorable girl. She still wears pampers though. But undeterred, she soldiers on. She wants to be a medical doctor.

I'm so glad this morning to read in Businessday that the girl has found help with MTN Foundation which has paid to have her taken to Dubai for treatment. When this girl makes it in life, as I am sure she will, her mother may come out one day to claim ownership.
But why would a mother abandon a living baby because of health challenges?

Nine years old, but not weaned from diapers  [size=8pt][/size]
By SAMUEL AWOYINFA   
Sunday, 12 Sep 2010   

Amaka Adedoyin is 9, but she still wears diapers, just like a baby; though she doesn‘t like it. Amaka and her adoptive mom share the pathetic story with SAMUEL AWOYINFA

She exudes excitement and radiates this infectious smile that‘s so inviting. But nine-year-old Amaka Adedoyin has a terrible pain, which the glow on her face has, to a great extent, helped to mask. What nature of pain? At the age when she‘s supposed to be taking care of her younger siblings, she herself needs help.

Amaka, at nine, curiously still wears pampers. Puzzled? Amazed? But the health problem Amaka suffers from is not of her own making. In fact, she was said to have been born with it. What problem? She has a congenital abnormality which makes her pass both urine and faeces from the same opening.

Amaka, who was said to have been abandoned at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi- Araba, Lagos, while she was a baby, finally found a home at the Hearts of Gold Hospice, Surulere, founded by Mrs. Laja Adedoyin.

”I don‘t like to wear pampers, I wear it because poop comes out always,” pretty Amaka tells our correspondent shyly.

Adedoyin says Amaka was brought to the home by the management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital four years ago, and that she was told that the cute girl was abandoned by her mother, who probably could no longer cope with the predicament.



The girl however appears undaunted, and she‘s pushing beyond the barriers placed on her by the abnormality. She believes she‘ll someday be someone to reckon with. Talking about what she wants to be in life, she says pointedly, ”I want to be a doctor.” And someday, this might come true for her.



”Amaka is currently in primary three, and she takes her tutorial in this hospice. She‘s being taught by volunteer youth corps members who come in here to do voluntary service. She is quite brilliant; I love her.”



Adedoyin, whose surname all the children in the house bear, tells our correspondent that Amaka‘s congenital abnormality makes urine and faeces to stream from where she‘s supposed to pass out urine.



At the last count, Amaka was said to have undergone four different surgical operations, both within and outside the country, all to no avail.



Adedoyin tells our correspondent, ”She uses up to five pampers a day, because it is the place where urine passes that she also uses to pass faeces. Sometimes, as one wears the diaper for her, the mess streams down and one needs to change it immediately. Four different surgical interventions have been carried out on her, but the problem has persisted.



”The last surgery she had took place in Spain. It was sponsored by an NGO based in Spain by name Futuro Enfamilia. She was in Spain from July to October 2007. The only improvement noticed in her condition was that her protruded tummy went down after that particular surgery.”



What is the way forward for Amaka? Adedoyin says that she needs a major surgery, which would provide a permanent solution to her predicament, which causes her shame. ”When you mention pampers in her hearing, she recoils and uses her right hand to cover her face,” Adedoyin discloses.



She says, ”I might take her to either India or the United States of America, because I had made enquiries from some hospitals in both countries, and they had assured me that they could handle her case.”



However, Adedoyin said, there is the issue of funds that is needed to take her abroad for this major surgery. ”She needs about N3m,” she states. ”You know, this hospice is maintained through whatever we are given by kind-hearted Nigerians; so, our resources are limited. I therefore appeal to those Nigerians who can help Amaka to reach out to us,” she pleads. She says this amount will take care of her medical bill, round trip ticket, feeding and accommodation.



A Lagos- based medical practitioner, Dr. Marcus Eruaga, calls Amaka‘s condition a Fistula, a kind of congenital malformation. He says Fistula is an unusual connection between two surfaces, and ”it could be between the vaginal surface and the urinary system, in which case you have Vesico-Vagina Fistula. It could be between the large intestine and the bladder. All these organs are lying within the pelvis, and if, for any reason, any of the organs gets ruptured, there will be a problem.”



He explains that this congenital abnormality could be corrected through surgery.



A neurologist at the Federal Hospital, Minna, Dr. Oladipupo Adepoju, also agrees with Eruaga that Amaka‘s case is redeemable through surgery. But before he could proffer any form of surgery, he says he would like to see the patient. But when reminded that four surgeries had been carried out on her, he adds, ”I don‘t know what sort of surgeries had been done, or how efficient they have been.” But he states that the urethra and the anus must be separate. ”In her own case, this is not so,” he says. ”Amaka needs the help of both the paediatrician and the psychiatrist to make her live a balanced life.”



Amaka‘s case is not the only one that has drawn the attention of SUNDAY PUNCH. The condition of two other inmates, Solomon and Joshua, who suffer cleft palate, is also of concern. Both of them were abandoned by their parents, after which they were rescued and brought to the hospice, which offers them succour and care.



Joshua was brought to the house by the men of Adeniji Adele police station on June 29, 2010, while Solomon was picked up by officials of the Kwara State Ministry of Social Development, Tourism and Culture in Ilorin. He was brought to the hospice in July 2010.



Adedoyin says she had taken the video recording that detailed the severity of the cleft palate of the two children and had met some Iranian doctors in Dubai, who had indicated interest in performing surgeries on them. But, again, the problem of funding the operations is there.



”If you observe these types of cleft, they are the severe type, especially the one Joshua suffers from. The Iranian doctors want $5,000 and $7,000 to carry out surgeries on Solomon and Joshua respectively,” she adds.



Once more, Adedoyin says she could not carry this burden alone, and appeals to ”well meaning Nigerians and individuals to come to our aid.”


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100912285598

wow, I read this story last year and I just could not imagine what this little girl would be going through. This is very fantastic o, she will finally be able to live a normal life and the shame will be gone, all gone. Thank you MTN for this, you have truly done well.