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Father of ‘hole-in-the-heart son’ seeks help

By Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City
29 June 2015   |   5:08 am
HE is contract driver with a leading national paper and his wife, a trader. All their little earnings have gone into medical bills of their son, Praise Omohimoria, a 14-month- old, who was diagnosed of having a hole in the heart.
Praise

Praise

Praise...inset is his father, Vincent Omohimoria

Praise…inset is his father, Vincent Omohimoria

HE is contract driver with a leading national paper and his wife, a trader. All their little earnings have gone into medical bills of their son, Praise Omohimoria, a 14-month- old, who was diagnosed of having a hole in the heart.

Praise needs not less than N7 million for medical treatment and other travel expenses abroad.

Doctors say the cost of the operation alone will not be less than $10,000.

This is the plight of his father, Vincent when he brought his case to The Guardian office in Benin City for help to appel to kind-hearted men and organisations for support.

Vincent said that the evaluation was carried out at the Paedriatic Cardiology Unit of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) with Professor Wilson Sadoh, a Consultant Paedriatic Cardiologist.

His son has been a patient at the hospital since birth and he was diagnosed of congenital heart disease or hole in the heart.

“The hospital said my son’s life is at risk and that he is likely to have a heart failure because of the hole in his heart. He also said the heart is failing very fast.”

Omohimoria said that the doctor also said his son would need to be flown abroad for corrective heart surgery and that the estimate for the procedure would not be less than $10, 000 exclusive of airfares and accommodation.

He displayed the doctor’s report from a repeat echo cardiogram, carried out on his son, at the UBTH on February 9, 2015, which revealed a “10.3mm secundum type, Atrial Septal Defect shunting from left to right, the right Atrium is markedly enlarged and fractional shunting 50.3 per cent”.

Meanwhile, Professor Sadoh has confirmed Praise’s plight and said that the parents requested for the toddler’s health status to be made open in order to enable them seek assistance for the boy.

Praise’s father pleaded: “Since a year and three months now, the baby has been sick, having moved her from Stella Obasanjo Hospital to UBTH. She was born at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, where the doctors diagnosed the ailment and sent us to UBTH and along the line of treatment in UBTH, they discovered that he has a hole in the heart and since a year and three months, I have been going up and down in UBTH. I have the challenge of finance and UBTH said they cannot continue the treatment because they don’t have the facilities, that I should take him to India or United States.”

“I am begging Nigerians to help me financially so that I can commence the treatment in India before my son’s situation gets worse because I am already running out of money for treatment and the treatment must commence soonest before it deteriorates to a disastrous state.”

“I beg the people of Edo State, the state government and other people to come to my aide. The doctors said I need N7 million for the treatment, travel expenses, visa and other expenses. I am begging Governor Adams Oshiomhole to help us. I am begging Nigerians and other kid-hearted person to help me.”

“The baby is one year and four months. I have three children, and he is the last. I am a driver. The other two children are in school. My wife is with me but because of this challenge, she has not been doing anything because she has to be with the boy all the time.”

“The chest is now swelling up and when we went for another test, the doctors said instead of the hole to get smaller, it was getting wider.”

Supports for Praise can be paid into Vincent Omohimoria- First Bank Plc, 2027635049 or Omohimoria Omoyibaria Philomena UBA, Account no 1019077500 or call 08038601975.

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