Parents of a five-month-old boy have cried out to Nigerians for financial assistance to enable them to pay for the cost of a surgery that is required to correct his heart defect.
The boysโ parents, Oluwole Nasiru and Rachael Nasiru, who brought the baby (David Nasiru) to The PUNCH corporate headquarters on Thursday, said that they would need between N3m and N3.5m to facilitate heart surgery for the boy.
The father, who works in a hospitality firm, and the 39-year-old mother, a petty trader, said David was diagnosed and found to have symptomatic congenital heart disease.
The diagnosis, they said, was carried out at the Paediatric Cardiology Unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in January this year.
He said the family had been looking for help to enable the boy to undergo the surgery.
According to the father, the family took the boy to the hospital because of the way he was breathing very fast and sometimes gasping for breath.
He said, โWhen we noticed this, we took him to LUTH and he was diagnosed with heart disease. We bought a certain drug which we gave to him to make the breathing normal but the permanent solution is surgery.
โMy wife and I are here to let the public know our plight and that they should help save the life of my boy. We need money; some said N5m was required while some said we would need about $15,000.โ
The Consultant, Paediatrician/Paediatric Cardiologist at LUTH, Dr O. J. Sokunbi, in a letter of introduction dated January 14, 2019, confirmed that the five-month-old baby is a patient of the paediatric cardiology unit at the hospital.
The letter read in part, โClinical evaluation indicated that David has symptomatic congenital heart disease, which was confirmed by echocardiography to be pentalogy of fallot (two small ostium secundum atrial septal defects shunting right to left, large-sized sub aortic ventricular septal defect shunting bi-directionally, with 50 per cent aortic override, severe infundibula, pulmonary valve and main pulmonary artery stenosis, left pulmonary artery stenosis with a right sided arch).
โDavid will require further cardiovascular evaluation and possible open-heart surgery to correct his heart defects in order to forestall irreversible and life-threatening complications.โ
The parents said they were told that they would need between $15,000 and $20,000 to take the boy to India for the surgery.
However, when contacted the Public Relations Officer of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, Kemi Fasoto, she said the boy would need between N2.5m and N3m for the surgery at the hospital apart from the familyโs travelling and personal expenses.
The family gave the bank details as First Bank Limited, with Account Name Nasiru Oluwamayowa David and Account Number 3134986015.
