Reflections: The stories that touched us EBERE UKWU: DREAMS FALL APART Ms. Ebere Ukwu was a bank manager in Nigeria before she relocated to the United States. She arrived the US during the cold winter month of January 2013 in the pursuit of life, liberty, happiness and opportunities. She anchored her new residence at her sister in-law’s place in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was not friendly to her dreams of relocation and quick employment privileges. Ebere soon left Atlanta for Maryland, at the invitation of an extended family friend, to try few available menial jobs targeted towards new immigrants wishing to settle into a different social structure and culture. She accepted an offer as a part-time nanny. She was frustrated by the lack of appeal and job satisfaction. This wasn’t the job she expected from her land of dreams. Two weeks after her first job, she quit. She is diabetic. During one of her daily chores as a nanny, she split her big right toe. The small gash was infected, thus, it resisted casual self-medication. But Ebere kept nursing the minor wound. Few months later, she relocated to North Carolina in search of better job opportunities. She arrived there sick. Days after arriving Raleigh, she went to the Wakemed emergency hospital for treatment and she collapsed into coma. Ebere has remained brain dead since 2013. Her brother, Ezuma Ukwu, provided an update, “We have been in contact with the social worker from the hospital. The hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States, is requesting that we transfer her to any Nigerian hospital to live the rest of her life in vegetative state, supported by machine. “There is no hospital in Nigeria with such sophisticated facility. Meanwhile, the United States embassy in Abuja has denied us visa to visit her. We remain helpless but hopeful. “I contacted the Wake Medical Hospital and through its Public Relations Specialist, Kim Kelly, issued this in response to enquiries: ‘In accordance with HIPAA, we do have clearance to provide a one-word condition report for Ebere Ukwu. Please don’t hesitate to contact me via phone or email. I’m happy to discuss further or help answer any questions.’” TEENAGER WITH KIDNEY DISEASE FIGHTS ON Her story attracted over 2,000 Saturday PUNCH Facebook likes. The 19-year-old girl fights on to live. Henrietta Ewenike was diagnosed with severe kidney disease four years ago. The kidney disease was from the infections of Hepatitis B disease which she contracted when she was 15 years old. Since the story was published, Ewenike continues to face other health challenges as a result of irregular dialyses treatment due to lack of funds. She recently had a surgery to correct a heart-related health problem. Her family and friends have initiated an appeal fund to help her single mother fund a kidney transplant. She has lost weight, remains on dialysis which costs N60,000 per session. Her mother, Ms. Henrietta Nsofor, tearfully pleaded, “She is my only child. Henrietta was diagnosed with kidney disease four years ago. Since then, our lives changed negatively. Life became a deep struggle living with the disease. “It has altered our lifestyle. Every day is agony for us, not knowing if I am going to see her awake at next sunrise. Henrietta is all I live for. My meagre income as administrative secretary in an insurance company is what we live on. My daughter requires dialysis three times a week, each costing about N60,000. “I barely bring home that amount every month. But I must do whatever is necessary to save my only child’s life. It’s heartbreaking for a mother to be helpless and watch her only child suffer all these in her young years. Doctors say she needs a kidney transplant. But I can barely pay for her weekly dialyses. I just want to save my daughter.” Friends and family set up this site for any financial assistance to help Henrietta fund kidney transplant ift.tt/1yhpv3g. You may contact the number listed on the page for additional information. If you live in Nigeria or have access to Nigerian currency, you may donate directly via: Keystone Bank; Account No.: 6000837750: Name: Ewenike Ijeoma Henrietta or First Bank; Account No.: 3027932295; Name: Nsofor Oby Henrietta. 13-YEAR-OLD WITH BRAIN TUMOUR DIES! The agony of a 13-year-old boy battling brain cancer, Ifeoluwapo Isijola, came to a sad end on November 21. Ifeoluwapo died from the disease few weeks after a brain surgery to reduce the swelling in his brain. He has since been buried. May his soul rest in peace! PAMELA MOJEKWU, JAILED BECAUSE OF HER ONLY DAUGHTER’S DEATH Pamela Mojekwu was Nigeria’s first celebrated aerobics and fitness expert. In the eighties, she was famous with her weekly fitness column in Nigeria’s Vanguard Newspaper, her appearances on Lagos Television and Nigerian Television Authority, Lagos. In July, we shared her sad life story: auto accident that killed her only daughter, her brain injuries from the accident and also being charged with vehicular homicide for the death of her daughter. Pamela recently updated us on her life after she shared her story on JEBOSE BOULEVARD: “I am here in Chicago, working on finishing arrangements to return to Nigeria. My plans are to head back to Lagos possibly in the New Year. I will be working with a lot of other sickle cell nonprofit organisations to create more awareness on this disease. “My mother is in a nursing home and that weighs heavily on my mind. As for my brain injury, I am very okay with that. Unfortunately, I barely speak these days, but whisper. This is the effect of having a tract for my collapsed lungs. It damaged my voice and I now speak in a whisper. “You have to listen carefully to hear all I whisper… I love my life and I am happy the way things have worked themselves out so far. My son is a recording artist and performer. He has few releases out. My only regret is that he has never invited me to any of his shows. Not that I truly want to be there as I know it will make him extremely uncomfortable.” RILWAN OMOSUN, WAITING TO DIE IN THE US He was expected to expire nine months ago. But Rilwan Omosun is still alive, waiting to die from years of congestive heart failure, kidney disease and stroke that paralysed him. Doctors at North West Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, concluded that he had one year to live on March 1, 2013. He stands with faith and new age medicine that prolong his days on planet earth. “Jebose, it’s one day at a time. My life is a life of activities. I live like I am in a war zone. I have been brutalised by stroke, battered by congestive heart failure and useless by dialyses, but I keep holding onto faith, life and living. “I don’t know how I have defied doctors’ predictions of my dying days. I was predicted to have left this earth nine months ago, but here we are these interesting times, thanks to new medicines and researches. I am still alive and hopeful. Keep the faith. I have sincere appreciations and gratitude to The Punch and the public for this profound support. “Your love and support are also helping me to stay alive. I don’t worry about dying any day. It’s not up to me. It’s in God’s hands. I just live the moment.” NIGERIAN STUDENT SHATTERED BY GUNSHOT IN THE US Early this fall, as summer days were ending, Robert Okwara’s dreams of playing in the National Football League, America’s elite professional sports, were shattered during a day time random robbery in his apartment. This was not the life Okwara dreamt of when he transferred from Livingston College in South Carolina to Alabama State University, recruited as a line backer for the college football team in 2012. The 19-year-old athlete remembered how the robbery happened. “It was very spontaneous. Three men deceived my roommate and I as we walked out of our apartment that afternoon; they said they had iPods to sell to us in our apartment complex. “The guys asked us to meet at a designated area to check the iPods. As soon as we arrived, they pulled guns at us and took my bag. I was scared. I reacted by punching one of the robbers in his face. He was knocked down and his gun fell from his hands. “One of the robbers panicked and shot at me as I was about to run. Everything went down so fast. I was shot in my waist. I lay in a pool of blood, bullet lodged in my spine; I was in serious pain from the gunshot. “Other residents in the complex called the police and requested an ambulance. Thirty minutes later, the ambulance arrived and I was rushed to the Baptist hospital in Montgomery, Alabama. I couldn’t move and breathing was very hard. I just wanted the hospital to put me to sleep. I was in a coma for six days.” After months of surgery and care in the hospital, CJ, as he is fondly called, was discharged. He continues rehabilitation and faces the challenges of life on wheelchair. He lives with his father who provides primary and assisted living care to his son. Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: editor@punchng ift.tt/1A2IjDI ift.tt/1Bs1LH6 [[Boost your social presence with NAIRALIKES nairalikes ]] #nigeria x #nairalikes #vanguardng
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:56:17 +0000
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