By Godwin Ifijeh
For Mr and Mrs. Israel E. Amariku, nothing could be as saddening as suddenly having a most beautiful and fast growing child become deformed and incapacitated.
Baby Ekeka Rejoice Amariku was born hale and hearty and grew rapidly, turning into a beautiful baby girl to behold. She was the admiration of neighbours and beyond, who loved and cherished carrying and caressing her each time they came across her and mum. The little baby radiated love and sweetness and the young parents regaled in joy, resplendent in confidence that she would grow up a pride and a meaning in their lives.
But all of that vanished in one fell swoop in 2015 when the little baby accidentally hut herself. She had innocently crawled while the mum was busy in the kitchen into a bottle of chemical kept by her dad at a corner of their one-room self-contain apartment in Oviore, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, spilled and fell over it. The chemical, which the father, who was then away to work, later identified as sodium hydroxide widely used for industrial production for its renown for such constituents as alkali, went into her eyes.
The little girl reeled in pain and anguish, her life instantly taking a turn for bad. Those promises and requiem that cascaded all over her quickly vanished and pain, sorrow and anger took over.
Multi-talented Israel Amariku, a young man in his mid-thirties from Obodoeti in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State is a sewing machine technician, drummer and industrial chemistry technician of vast experience. His wife, a petty trader also from Delta State is an indigene of Otor-Igho in Isoko North Local Government Area of the State. Israel Amaiku was in a paid employment then in the production unit of a blue chip company and had vast knowledge of chemicals and their uses.
To complement his monthly salary, Amariku set up a small production unit in a mini-room constructed close to the entrance of his apartment. In-between his work schedule, at weekend and mid night he produced such chemical products as sewing machine oil, liquid soap, after shave, petroleum jelly and hair creams, among others, which his wife and brothers sold in the neighbourhood and beyond.
He replicated in the make-shift factory all safety measures known to him in his company factory and he produced and regaled in joy as extra money began to role in to ease life’s harshness on him. It went on smoothly for over two years until that sad day of May 29, 2015, when the little Rejoice, who has just started crawling, strayed away and encountered a bottle of one of the chemicals he uses for production, spilled it all over the floor and fell over it to upturn not only the joy in the house into sadness but to set the couple against themselves in a blame game that almost separated them.
Busy in the kitchen, Mrs. Amariku left the little baby in the sitting room. Intuitively she peeped from the kitchen after a while to ascertain her position, she was stunned, she saw the baby drenched and lying flat and still on her tommy, her two hands clutched to her face. She raced out to her to find out what had gone wrong. She saw the empty plastic bottle of the acidic chemical, lying beside her and the liquid all over the ground. It dawned on her that she had moved and spilled the chemical on herself.
“I was scared stiff, I grabbed her, clutched her to my body to feel if there was still any life in her, she kept her hands across her eyes, I tried to take them away from the eyes, I noticed for the first time that the right eye was firmly closed, I tried to get it opened and to wash it, she didn’t allow that, she held tightly to it, then I raised alarm, but just then, her father came in and I tried to explain to him, we were thrown into anguish,†Mrs. Amariku told the story of the little girl’s excruciating accident and the journey to this day into the struggle to have her restored to her glorious past.
 The frayed nerves the accident caused between the husband and wife remains but they have managed to patch on for the love of the little Rejoice and the battle to salvage her situation. The eyes have continued to go from bad to worse, the two eyelids are burnt and the corneal damaged.
From the Delta State University Teaching, Oghara, where the 15-month old girl was initially hospitalized for about three months, they moved on referral as one of the eyes was going glued to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. She was operated upon but that did not bring much relief. After over a month of stay at UCH, “we were told that she would need a corneal transplant and separation of the lids abroad. We had just N.7million savings before the incident and we have exhausted it all, how do we raise the money to travel out for such operations on her?†Israel Amariku, father of the beleaguered little girl wondered, stating that they have opened an Account No. 2959196019 with the FCMB in his name, Amariku Israel, to which members of the public could reach them with their donations and contributions while appealing to good spirited Nigerians, governments, politicians, religious houses and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to come to their rescue and help raise the funds to restore the glory and once beautiful life of the little girl.
From all account, as medical reports on her showed, a surgery overseas is inevitable if the little baby girl is to ever have her sight restored. One of such earlier reports dated August 8, 2015, by St. Gregory’s Specialist Clinic & Ultrasound Diagnostic Service, Ibadan and signed by Drs. S.A. Gbadamosi and K.O. Fakayode while at UCH for the surgery, stated: “Right eye eyelid separated from the cornea by a 32z18x31mm vol 10cc of clear liquid probably retained tears as no tears flowed on the ‘R’ during crying. Right eye 3mm thick, stuck closed.†The report further puts the AP (mm) for the right eye at 17 and the left eye, 13 while pointing out that the ANT CHEM of the right eye has collapsed and that of the left eye is thick walled 1.7mm. Also, the report notes that the Lens of the right eye is thick and has an echogenic 2.9mm just as that of her left eye is equally thick but has the echogenic at 2.2mm. It observes the vitreous, retina and extra ocular of both eyes to be normal and summarized its diagnosis thus: “R’fused eyelids and retro-lid accumulation of tears or crst, bilateral cataract and reduced chamberâ€
An August 8, 2017 follow up report on her signed by Dr. Temitope Tijani, Consultant Clinical of the Skipper Eye-Q, Victoria Island, Lagos, which has made the parents to intensify their appeal on Nigerians to come to their rescue and aid them financially to take the child overseas for the required surgery, observed that she fell on sodium hydroxide at 15 months of age and both eyelids were burnt and the cornea scary and after an initial surgery, both lid are stuck together. The report continued: “On assessment, visual acuity was light perception with good projection in the right eye in four quadrants and no light perception in the left eye. An assessment of bilateral ankylosymbleparon was made with left phthisis bulbi.
“There is need for bilateral ankylosymbleparon release and possible keratoprosthesis in the right eye and orbital reconstruction for implants in the left eye. The little girl will benefit from treatment abroad.â€
The parents has since established contact with an Indian Hospital, Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, Sector-51, Wazirabad Village, Gurugram, Haryana-122001, which in a response signed by one Dr. Urvi has put possible cost of the treatment, accommodation and feeding expenses for one–two weeks’ stay or beyond, transportation for both the baby and her company, exclusive services, including professional charges of other consultants, additional procedures, special drugs, consumables and blood products at N5 million. The parents, however, remain at a loss on how to raise this sum but the baby has continue to suffer and tingles in pain.
“There is no other way we can raise this money unless Nigerians come to our rescue to save her life, we are begging and appealing to good spirited Nigerians to help us to raise the money and God will reward bountifully all those who step forward to save her life.â€, Mrs. Amariku begged and prayed.
