Failing kidneys threaten woman’s life

Our resources have been exhausted. We have sold all valuables to generate money, but these are not enough. To continue the weekly dialysis now is a big problem, let alone getting money for kidney transplant to make my sister live.”

Pleading with well-to-do Nigerians, organisations and government for help, Mr Charles Eniolorunda fought tears last Wednesday when he took the worsening health of his sister to the Lagos headquarters of The Nation.

Forty-eight-year-old Mrs Taiwo Adebekun, according to Eniolorunda, was full of life until about three years ago when it was discovered that she was suffering from Kidney failure.

According to Eniolorunda, his sister is in pains, weak and fragile, adding that she had been taken to various hospitals for solution without any result.

Mrs Adebekun, he said, needs urgent kidney transplant for her to stay alive.

“I am here in respect of my sister who is having a chronic kidney problem which has lingered for three years. She has gone to various hospitals where tests showed that both kidneys are at end-stage and the only thing that can keep her living is dialysis for now before doing kidney transplant as a permanent solution,” he said.

Eniolorunda added: “We have been doing dialysis for the last two years – once every week and sometimes, twice depending on the way she feels, at an average cost of N35, 000 weekly. Now, there is no money anymore and the doctors warned that if her body gets weaker than it is now, she might not survive. According to them, we need to urgently carry out the kidney transplant, but now, we cannot afford it. By our findings we will need about N12 million to do it in India and N8million in Nigeria.”

He said the woman had been in pains since the discovery of the problem, lamenting that to sustain the dialysis weekly had become difficult because the family is cash-strapped.

Dr O Awobusuyi, the Consultant Nephrologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), wrote in his report: “Mrs Adebekun is diagnosed as having Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and has been on maintenance dialysis.  She is currently on a twice-weekly maintenance dialysis protocol for dialysis. She, however, would like to have kidney transplantation as her modality of renal replacement therapy.

“This is considered advisable in view of the generally improved quality of life following kidney transplantati