Help my sick son, widow cries out

“Help! Help!! Nigerians, Nigeria, people of the world, please come to my aid.” This is the cry of a 37-year-old widow and mother of two, Grace Bosede Fahiwa from Isanlu, Yagba East Local Council headquarters in Kogi State, who is on the verge of losing her job and her home to face a critical situation that may end her life and that of her son.
 
Her trouble started soon after she gave birth on November 22, 2014, to her second child, Timilehin Peter Ayodele through a caesarean section at the General Hospital, Ife-Olukotun, Kogi State. “Three months after the baby’s birth, ‘noticed he didn’t laugh, he didn’t cry; he did not sweat, and he would not throw up curdled milk as babies do. He also could not sit and I was taking the recommended immunisations. Suddenly, convulsion set in. Doctors said he lost his memory,” she recalled the beginning of their ordeal.

That marked the beginning of the family’s unending journeys to hospitals – from General Hospital, Ife-Olukotun to Isanlu General Hospital and from there to Specialist Hospital at Lokoja and back to Isanlu General Hospital. Aside from the hospitals having almost become their home, the family also took their baby to many churches and crusade grounds around in Kogi State, without reprieve. It was in the midst of the troubles that the husband, Matthew John Ayodele, a motor mechanic, died on December 19, 2015, leaving the wife to battle through alone.’
 
Though Timilehin’s heart beats and he breaths to show he is living, his muscles and sinews are rigid; he moves no part of his body. His head cannot turn just as very part of his body is stiff. Touch or hit him anywhere, he feels no sensation. He eats slowly and is still being bottle-fed like a baby. Except for the big size of his head, he is not bigger than a six-month-old child. He stays permanently for hours wherever he is laid.
 
The mother, who holds a National Certificate of Education (NCE) manages at a House Academy, a private primary school in Isanlu that has just raised her salary to ten thousand naira (N10, 000) per month, which the woman said is not enough to buy enough drugs for Timilehin.

When this writer encountered the embattled mother, she was on her knees, with tears in her tear drops on her checks begging her landlord to be patient with her, as she owed a year and half rent of thirty-six thousand Naira (N36, 000) only and the old man was threatening her with quit notice. It was among the people that gathered there that the widow brought down her sick-old baby from her back for people to see her suffering. Many women wept; men including the landlord shook their heads. The landlord left with a promise to be back at the month’s end.

She is appealing to individuals and organisations the world over and spiritualists too that God may send to save her son from this disease without a name and any help that may get her out of her financial and spiritual morass, which she said would end her life and that of her son.
 
Her account number is Access Bank 0760556665, Account name: Fahiwa, Grace Bosede. For contact: 07084885788 or 08154876734.