Our only child could die if we don’t raise N800,000 – Father of three-year-old battling hydrocephalus - Shepherd Digest Magazine

He is just three years old and there is no way anyone, even with a heart of stone, would not melt at the sight of little Godwin Nna. The child who is diagnosed of hydrocephalus (water in the head) has been battling to stay alive for the past two years.

And when our correspondent visited the Akure home of his parents earlier in the week, it was a heart-wrenching sight as the little boy, looking so helpless, lay at one corner of the room while crying intermittently.

According to his father, Godspower Nna, the ailment has made the little boy to be retarded in growth. And to add to that, he doesn’t talk or walk.

Godspower, 26 lamented that the little boy had been taken to various hospitals when the ailment started in 2015 but there was no solution to the problem. He added that the family had spent a lot of money on drugs and operations but there hasn’t been any improvement as the head keeps swelling up.

He said, “The problem started when he was one year old. We just observed that he always had high temperature and was always crying. We thought it was malaria, we gave him malaria drugs, but the problem persisted. So we went to the hospital here, they only prescribed malaria drugs which we gave him but this didn’t help.

“Later, we discovered that his head was swelling every day. We did not know the cause, so we took him to a teaching hospital where series of tests were conducted on him and we were told that he is suffering from a disease called hydrocephalus.

“They told us that there is water in his head and that the water that is supposed to go through his body is stored in the head and that is why the head is swelling up increasingly. We were told that he would undergo surgery and we were asked to pay a sum of N600, 000 for the operation, which we did. We were told by the doctors there that the head would become normal after the operation but unfortunately it was not corrected.”

Godspower who works as a bar attendant in a hotel in Akure further stated that in search for solution to the ailment of his only child, somebody advised him to take the boy to the National Hospital, Abuja , where he went and he was asked to come with a sum of N800,000 for another surgery.

“But we have practically spent all we had when we went to the teaching hospital. Since this sickness started, we have spent over N1m. There is no way we can afford anything else again. We are just begging well meaning Nigerians to help us so that my child doesn’t die.

“They told us that it is only the National Hospital, Abuja that tackles such a case successfully, so we took him there. They too also conducted tests on him and diagnosed hydrocephalus. They said we should come back for the operation with N800,000. I could not go back to the hospital because there is no money again. That is why we are appealing to Nigerians to help us out. This is the only child I have and I don’t want him to die, the head is so heavy that you can’t carry him for five minutes; you will feel the pain because it makes him very heavy.”