A woman, Kehinde Ugbede-Egbeyemi, aged 48, who is battling with kidney disease, has appealed to Nigerians for financial assistance to the tune of N20 million to undergo a kidney transplant.
Kehinde, who hails from Ogun State, has been battling with kidney failure since 2018, shortly after she got married to her husband.
She is presently a shadow of herself, with a bloated and tiny body frame compared with her previous physique, which appeared robust and radiant in a photograph.
Narrating her ordeal on Tuesday, the ailing woman said she had sold all her possessions in a bid to raise money for the transplant, noting that the weekly dialysis had drained her finances.
She said, “The disease started two months after I got married in February 2018, and it has cost me over N40 million so far. I first paid N10m in 2018 for the transplant, but because there was no donor, we could not carry out the procedure.
“So, the money was spent on drugs, weekly dialysis, supplements and hospital charges. As of 2020, I had spent about N30 million.
“The second time, we paid N7m to the hospital, after which my twin brother offered to donate his kidney. People supported me with N4m.
“But the procedure could not be carried out because I was down with diarrhoea for one year. I was passing out only water, and my vital organs were down. So, the money was also expended on dialysis and drugs at the Zenith Medical Centre,” she added.
She also claimed to owe the hospital N6.5m for the cost of dialysis, which had gone up from N45,000 to N58,600, and the procedure was conducted twice a week.
Corroborating her ordeal, a medical report prepared by the Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre, Abuja, dated February 2018, indicated that Kehinde was being managed with “a twice-weekly haemodialysis schedule, intermittent erythropoietin and iron sucrose injection, antihypertensive and other supportive management.”
The report, signed by a Consultant Nephrologist, Dr. Olatise Am, further stated that the best treatment option for her condition was “a kidney transplantation in terms of improved quality of life and long-term survival.”
The hospital said the procedure’s financial implications were “heavy” and that it would cost about N22 million overall, adding that the patient would require assistance.
Kehinde is therefore appealing to individuals and organisations to assist her in raising the money for the transplant to save her life.
Donations can be sent to FCMB account: 4550620013, Egbeyemi Kehinde Oluwatoyin. She can also be reached on: 08035903948.