Mr Dauda Raji, a 65-year-old carpenter and his family are currently appealing for financial assistance in order to undergo kidney transplant.
According to medical doctors, Dauda, a native of Ibadan, father of five, with two wives, is down with acute terminal conditions, including acute kidney disease and liver dysfunctionality.
A letter dated September 7, 2021, signed by Dr E.E Emmanuel, Medical Officer, Oyo Mesi Hospital where he is being tended, indicated that the patient presented three weeks ago with severe body weakness.
When examination by physicians, he was advised to go for haemodialysis and kidney transplant, a session which costs a fortune to undergo.
His daughter, Afolashade, stating that the family relied on philanthropic members of the society, said, “My father is a carpenter. We noticed that one of his legs got swollen and after some days, the second leg was affected. At the hospital, they ran some test on him and it was confirmed that he had kidney disease. We are still at the renal dialysis centre for the fifth dialysis.
“But for the ongoing national strike by the resident doctors, we would have taken him to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. We take him for dialysis twice a week and each session costs N60,000. After dialysis, we noticed that he was always short of blood. The doctor suggested that we should try and take him for transplant. By our findings, a transplant would cost N15million, including the payment that we have to make to donors.”
According to the family, they are yet to find a donor and are currently unable to procure drugs for him.
When interviewed, Raji said, “It all started when I noticed that my feet were swollen. At the hospital, I was told that I wasn’t drinking sufficient water and somehow, my urination was affected. At some point, I couldn’t urinate without using a medical aid.
“As a carpenter, I used to travel to Lagos to work at building sites. Initially, it did not affect my capacity to work. But as time went by, I started to experience fatigue. The last place I worked was Ajah, in Lagos. Since I came for Ileya festival, I have been down with the ailment.”
Dr Folawemimo Arogundade of Oyomesi Specialist Hospital, Ibadan, said that the patient was brought to the hospital on August 2. He had complained of general body weakness. I think he was earlier admitted somewhere else. We have been managing a case of chronic kidney disease. He had uncontrolled hypertension. At the time he came to us, he had already had like six sessions of dialysis.
“We wrote series of tests for him to do in our laboratory, like full blood count, sugar level, liver function test, cholesterol level, as well as another kidney function test. The kidney function test was deranged. He had an abdominal scan done somewhere and it showed a whole lot of problems. Problem with gall bladder, kidney, prostate and urinary bladder. He had a whole lot of issues.
“They (family members) were thinking that I was going to admit him but I just counselled them based on the series of tests that he had done. Admitting him would mean making them to spend more money that they didn’t have. It was a terminal case; there was no point spending more money on admission and medication which probably may not help him.
“I told them what they would need was probably a kidney transplant. Doing dialysis is to keep him alive prior to when he would get kidney transplant. It was just the bitter truth that I got to tell them. He had low blood pressure. The kidney that is not working well would cause low blood level. At some point, we had to admit him for blood transfusion; we had to give him like two pints of blood. He also had a deranged liver function and hypertensive heart disease.
“The causes of weakness are low blood level and low blood sugar. His blood sugar was fine but his blood level was low. For the cost, he needs to go for renal transplant and that would be done, probably at the University College Hospital. I can’t place the cost because I don’t work at UCH. The way out for him, regarding the kidney case, is a transplant.”
For financial support, you can send to Save Raji Dauda Kidney Transplant Fund Raising Account, First City Monument Bank, FCMB, 8206414013.
