August 9, 2009
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| GOVERNOR UDUAGHAN EXAMINING LITTLE JOY, IN HIS OFFICE. |
Six-year old little Joy Essi, she had no choice but to believe in miracle, hoping that her dreams of becoming like every other child would come true.
Born with a rare medical condition and a tumour grows consistently causing her head to grow disproportionately to her age and size, her days and those of her parents are marked with pains and shame.
She was forced to abandon school over a year ago following constant taunts from her peers. Her extraordinarily large cheeks and sloppy left eyes made her the butt of all crude jokes.
“As a result of the shame and taunts from her mates in school she has refused to go back to school because every time she returned home from school she was always crying,” her mother, told our correspondent.
The child’s plight was not helped by the financial condition of her parents, who could not afford the huge cost of treating the abnormality and attendant pain, which medical experts told our correspondent was cancerous.
Mr. Essi, the child’s father, who is a newspaper distributor in Warri, said the child young child faced physical and emotional trauma, saying, “She would sit down for several hours engulfed in a world of her own.”
When the pain from the eye got too much for her, she would cry out while her parents watched helpless as she writhed in pains.
The broken hearted parents attempt to get her medical aid at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) was stymied by paucity of fund as it was gathered that they could not afford the exorbitant cost of drugs and injections.
The helpless father said, “I took her the first time to the Enugu University Teaching Hospital, Enugu from where we were referred to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City around 2005.’
At UBTH an ophthalmologist diagnosed her ailment and suggested a surgical operation to ascertain the cause of the unusual protrusion on her face. Unfortunately though, she was caught in the UBTH workers’ strike of that year, forcing doctors to abruptly discharge her.
“There is a particular injection they said I should buy, it was N30, 000 each then but now, it is N40, 000 each. I was supposed to buy three of it but because of the money, I have been spending, I cannot buy it now and it is scarce.
“Now, I do not even know the actual amount that is required to carry out the entire operation but it would require between N1 million and N2 million to take care of the operation of this my lovely little daughter and put smile back on her face,” he stated.
Speaking in the same vein earlier in the year, the distressed child appealed to well meaning Nigerians, particularly the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who she and her parents had only seen on TV.
“Anytime my eye is paining me, I tell my Daddy. I stopped going to the school because the eye is paining me and people were laughing at me. I will want them to do my eye well so that I will start to go to school again. When I go to the church, I pray that God will give my father money for the doctors to do my eye,” she said in a sweet thin voice which the pain could not mask.
The 6-year old, however reserved her deepest prayers for Governor Uduaghan in the 1st Anniversary of his administration. While others were appealing for work, electricity and other good things of life, she merely said, “Since the Governor is a doctor, I want him to do my eye so that it will stop paining me and people would stop laughing at me. I want the Governor of my state, Delta, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is a medical doctor by profession to treat me so that I will be well, that is what I want from my Governor. Tell him as he is celebrating his one year in office that this is my desire from him”.
On Monday, June 23, 2008, the dream of this little child came through. After reading the plight of the little girl on a national daily, Governor Uduaghan invited the mother of the little girl to bring her to Asaba, the state capital.
Shortly after the governor midwife the first education summit in the state, he called for a private meeting with the mother of the child, who accompanied her for the memorable visit to the governor.
Little Joy Essi got her wish to be treated by her governor as she was thoroughly examined by Governor Uduaghan, who showed that his foray into politics had not in any way affected his love for the medical profession.
After examining the child the governor demanded for the medical report and other bills that had been accumulated by the parents so far. But the child’s mother was overwhelmed and could not believe that she was indeed in the presence of her state governor.
“My legs were shaking and I was amazed by the humility of the man”, she told our correspondent afterwards, adding, “Unlike other persons who would not want to touch the child because of her condition, he looked her thoroughly over and asked me so many questions which I could not answer, not because I don’t know what to say but because I was dazed.”
Mrs. Essi was rocked even more when the governor doled out N250, 000 for their expenses and to enable them take good care of the child and obtain all the necessary information for the government to assume responsibility for the child’s treatment and rehabilitation.
Eyes misted by tears of joy, the child’s mother said she now believed in miracle. “I have never doubted that the child’s name is not a mistake. She is a child that brought us so much joy when she was born and she would continue to live to that name.”
(THE NATION, JUNE 30, 2008)
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