Emotions betrayed an Ondo State-based fisherman, Mr Ayobami John, as he narrated to City Round the health challenge his daughter, Ifeoluwa, is battling.
John said that the condition has lasted about four years and brought the education and life pursuits of his teenage daughter to a halt coupled with stigmatisation and psychological torture the young girl suffers.
Speaking to our correspondent on Friday, John said, “It started a few years ago when she was nine years old. I discovered something strange growing in her stomach. I observed it on a particular day from her reactions when she was sweeping. Initially, I thought she was pregnant, so I took her for pregnancy tests. But the results came out negative, then I took her to a hospital in Owo, Ondo State, to take other tests.”
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John added that as a fisherman, he couldn’t afford the financial demands on him to always travel to Owo from Ori-Oke Iwamimo, where he lives to care for his ailing child.
“I took the advice of well-meaning friends and family to go to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, for treatment where she was eventually diagnosed, ’’ he said.
In a report sent to City Round by the troubled father signed by a consultant radiologist at the UCH identified only as Dr Shola, Ifeoluwa was diagnosed with “a large pedunculated soft tissue mass involving the stomach cavities and the destruction of the anterior wall of the body system, hyperostosis and deformity of the maxilla with the displacement of the stomach and multiple calcifications in the stomach swelling stating that there is complete pacification of the inner ethmoid.’’
John begged well-meaning Nigerians to help his daughter to undergo surgery. Monetary donations can be sent to the family through account name; John Ayobami Happiness, account number: 2160563863 domiciled at the United Bank for Africa.
