Afusat Jimoh’s life changed seven years ago after
she fell into boiling oil.
At the time, she was helping an aunt living in
the Ejigbo area of Lagos State to fry some pieces of meat when she suddenly had
epileptic convulsion and fell into the sizzling oil.
While battling with the burns she sustained in
the incident, her six-month-old child fell ill and died, followed by the death
of her husband.
PUNCH Metro learnt that after many years
of trying to find solutions to her woes, her mother also abandoned her and
fled.
The Lagos State Government, which promised to foot
the bills for a face-lift surgery, was said to have defaulted on its pledge.
It was learnt that Afusat now begs for alms in
order to raise funds for her surgery.
PUNCH Metro visited Ijeshatedo Street in
the Surulere area of Lagos, where the Kwara State indigene resides with an
uncle, Abdullahi Ayinla.
She had a veil on her body with which she covered
her injuries.
She said, “I was helping my aunt to fry some
pieces of meats. There was nobody at home that day and I didn’t know when I
felt dizzy and unconsciously fell into the hot oil that I was using to fry the
meat.
“People came late to my rescue, by which time the
oil had damaged my face, arm and neck.”
Afusat said she was rushed to a nearby hospital,
where she spent four months before being transferred to the Burns Unit of the
Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
While the hospital doctors were battling to
restore her health, her baby, Fatai, died.
She said, “My child died because I could not
breastfeed him. After his death, my husband was no longer coming to the
hospital to check on me and that gave me some concerns. After several months,
we decided to look for him at their family house. I was told that he had died
and his family did not want to compound my woes, which was why they left me in the
dark.
“Right now, I also don’t know where my mother is.
She has left me for years and I have lost all contacts with her. The only
person I have around me now is my uncle and my old father who visits once in a
while.
‘’I was selling ready-made clothes, but people
were afraid of patronising me because of my looks. This was why I started
begging to complement the little my uncle provides.’’
It was learnt that the family’s efforts to raise
funds for her to undergo a surgery, had not yielded any result.
A document, purportedly issued by an Indian
medical facility in Mumbai, Wockhardt Hospitals, dated July 2012, showed that
the cost of the surgery was N3m, excluding her cost of travel.
A non-governmental organisation, Dot Human
Development, was said to have written the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde
Fashola, requesting support for the victim.
The state’s Ministry of Health, in another letter
by the then Permanent Secretary, Dr. Femi Olugbile, directed LASUTH management
to do the surgery free of charge.
The letter, dated April 2013, reads in part,
“Afusat accidentally fell into boiling oil during an epileptic attack six years
ago. She sustained a third degree burns to the face that healed with scarring
and disfigurement of the face.
“Following a request, she was referred to LASUTH
for assessment and recommendation. The plastic surgeon and the Ophthalmologist
both confirmed that the corrective surgery can be done in LASUTH.
“In view of the above, you are kindly requested
to carry out the surgery on the victim on compassionate ground. Please forward
the details of cost of management to the Ministry of Health for consideration.”
A reaction to the letter, dated July, 2013,
however, said, “The initial procedure in this patient will involve the
insertion of tissues which will be procured from outside sources.”
The victim’s uncle, Ayinla, said the LASUTH
doctors explained to the family that they needed funds from the state
government to procure the tissue and without it, they would not be able to do
anything.
“We started going to the state secretariat to see
how they will give the LASUTH doctors the money, but they kept directing us
from one desk to the other. We were frustrated and we had to leave the
hospital,” he added.
When contacted, the Lagos State Commissioner for
Health, Jide Idris, did not pick his call. A text message sent to his phone had
also yet to be replied to as of the time of filing this report.
Source: Punch
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