After kidney transplant, little Daniel bounces back: Need Support For His Monthly Medication

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <header class="post-header cf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="featured" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://sunnewsonline.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/little-dan.jpg" itemprop="image" rel="prettyPhoto" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="After kidney transplant, little Daniel bounces back"><img alt="little dan" class="attachment-main-slider wp-post-image no-display appear" height="336" src="http://sunnewsonline.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/little-dan-543x336.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" title="After kidney transplant, little Daniel bounces back" width="543" /></a></span></div> </header><div class="post-meta" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-bottom-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; margin: 0px 0px 21px; overflow: hidden; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BY <span class="reviewer" itemprop="author" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?author=2" rel="author" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by COSMAS OMEGOH">COSMAS OMEGOH</a></span> ON <span class="dtreviewed" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><time class="value-datetime" datetime="2014-08-11T02:56:54+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">AUGUST 11, 2014</time> </span></span></div> <div class="post-container cf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="post-content-right" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="post-content description" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px -1.857em; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">• Dad thanks Nigerians, says 12-year-old on $200 monthly drugs needs more help</strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2007, Master David Opara was five years old. But he was still wearing diapers. His parents, Pastor Alban and Mrs. Goodness Opara, were distraught at such a strange development happening at a time their son’s mates had long forgotten how it felt wearing such stuff. Each time the kid did not wear his diapers, his urine would be dropping on his pants in trickles for no other reason than that he had a blockage of the urinary track.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Therefore, because of David’s natural deformity, he had enormous difficulty passing out urine. His nature-imposed plight piled tremendous pressure on his kidneys, rendering them incapable of functioning as they should. Passing urine, for him, became a tug of war. Excess urine, which he should have passed out many days before, was held back in his system because it had nowhere to go. Only a little portion of it found its way through his urinary track, dripping embarrassingly as he went unless he wore his diapers. This development cast the little boy’s parents in a lake of sadness and left him in dear need of urgent kidney transplant.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But today, Master David, now 12, and his parents are a lot happier as they have a different story to tell. David, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) 2 student of Tonia International College, Coker, Lagos, has long bounced back to life and doing well; he is leading a normal, active life after undergoing a kidney transplant in an Indian hospital in 2010.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Living with a kidney donated to him by his mother, David eventually conquered the towering Goliath which threatened to claim his life. Now, all the impediments that hitherto held him down have been rolled away. So, he does virtually every other thing his mates do. He plays football like the rest of his peers; he is even a die-hard fan of Real Madrid.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recently, the reporter traced him to Assemblies of God Church, Ikate, Lagos where he was undergoing a Christian summer programme with his mates. The boy who came to the event with his father radiated joy and gratitude. His mien was that of “Miracle Child of the Decade.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I’m fine and doing very well,” he said, flashing a smile. “I recently finished my promotional examination to JSS 2. The name of my school is Tonia International College, Coker. We are on holidays now so I came here with my dad for a religious programme.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Asked whether he still wore his diapers after the surgery he underwent in India, he smiled shyly and said no, noting that he no longer felt the way he always felt before he went for the transplant.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I feel okay now,” he said. “I do every other thing my mates do. I play football, though not always. I’m a Real Madrid fan and my best food is chips and chicken. I hope to be a engineer in future.” he announced gleefully.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The story of David is that of a little boy who chose life and rejected death. At five years of age when he was diagnosed at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) to have a blocked urinary track from birth, he was already at the brink. But through the support of good-spirited Nigerians, money was raised for his surgery at Forties Hospital in New Delhi, India. That was in 2010. Now he is hail and hearty. But he is said to be on monthly drugs which costs about $200 and requires to undergo medical check up from time to time in a specialist hospita, even as the Indian hospital still wants him to come back.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recalling how it all began for his son, Pastor Opara, (a former journalist whose last station before he veered into the Lords vineyard was at <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Daily Sun</i>) said David’s case was one that left the family a tall mountain to climb.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“At five, he wasn’t able to pass urine normally, he began. “Each time he dressed up, and did not wear his pampers, urine would be seen dropping on his pants. Then we used to taunt him. Progressively his case became worse. So in 2007, we were forced to take him to Randle General Hospital in Surulere, Lagos for tests. There, they didn’t tell us he had a kidney-related problem. It was at LUTH that we were told he had kidney problem and had to undergo regular dialysis and then surgery.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Part of the challenge he then had was that he was vomiting, and had lost appetite and much blood. Every now and then, he needed blood transfusion and we were donating blood regularly to sustain him. We were buying blood too to augment what we were giving him. Then every little money that came our way was spent on providing him with dialysis services and blood purchase.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Months after weaving in and out of hospital, in July 2010, we were invited to a meeting at LUTH where we were told that David’s situation needed kidney transplant. We were frightened when we were told that we required to raise money for the exercise so he would not die.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Quickly, we swung into action. My friends in the media came to our rescue. My organisation – The Sun Publishing Ltd, my church, Assemblies of God, Ikate, various individuals and governmental organisations raised the money for my wife and I to travel with David, believing that I was the one who was going to lend him a kidney. But at last, it was my wife who did. We went to India in October 2010 and returned in January 2011.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The doctors who managed him there recommended that he should be undergoing regular medical check up at LUTH, at least once every two months so that the experts there would know how he was faring. Each time we take him for test, his samples are collected and sent to South Africa for analysis. Each of such tests costs N25, 000. As I speak to you, he is on a live drug whose month-long dose costs $200.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“So far, his doctors at LUTH have done wonderfully well. Some of them personally call to find out how he is doing if we fail to make regular visits. Even some members of the public who have followed David’s case often call to know how he is faring. Indeed, we are eternally grateful for this gesture.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The lad, as you can see, is doing well, but each time he faces challenges such as vomiting and malaria, we easily get frightened.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The doctors at the Indian hospital where he was treated also recommended that he should avoid getting infected. This compels him sometimes to wear protective gear over his nose. At home, he has a special water dispenser because he does not drink just any type of water every one of us drinks. We were asked to return to the same hospital after a while for them to investigate him by themselves but we cannot do so now because the money is not there. But if we get the required support from anywhere, we will be glad to take him back to India again.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No minding the challenges the boy still faces facing at the moment, his father strongly believes that David’s life is that of a child determined to live, while urging the general public not to be tired of helping his son lead a normal healthy life.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Support for David can be sent to UBA Plc Account No <a href="tel:1001332228" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">1001332228</a> in favour of Alban Opara. The boy’s dad may be reached on <a href="tel:08063205177" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">08063205177</a>.</span></div> </div> <div id="adscontainer" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.857em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

After kidney transplant, little Daniel bounces back: Need Support For His Monthly Medication

BY  COSMAS OMEGOH  ON AUGUST 11, 2014   • Dad thanks Nigerians, says 12-year-old on $200 monthly drugs needs more help In 2007, ...

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