Hole-in-the-heart baby needs N7m for surgery

isaac

March 13, 2015 1:56 PM

A baby with a hole in the heart is urgently in need of financial assistance to go for a corrective surgery.

The parents of Praise Omohimoria, a 14-month-old baby who has a hole in his heart, have appealed to kind hearted Nigerians, NGOs, organizations and corporate bodies to help the raise the required about N7 million to facilitate a corrective surgery abroad.

The boy's father, Vincent Omohimoria, who is from Benin, Edo State, says that his son’s health condition was evaluated at the Paediatric Cardiology Unit of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) by a Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist, Professor Wilson Sadoh, and has advised the family that for the boy to live, he must undergo a surgery to correct the defect.

According to the father, Praise has been a patient at the UBTH, Ugbowo, since birth and the family has run out of funds to treat him.

Omohimoria said the evaluation carried out last week revealed a congenital heart disease or hole-in-the-heart.

"The hospital said that my son’s life is at risk and that he is likely to have heart failure because of the hole in his heart. The doctor also said the heart is failing very fast."

He added that the doctor also said Praise would need to be flown abroad for corrective heart surgery and that the estimates for the procedure would amount to about $10,000. That amount, according to him, does not include travelling expenses, airfares and accommodation.

He displayed a medical report of a repeat echo cardiogram at the UBTH, which was carried out on February 9, 2015, with the report showing a '10.3mm secundum type, Atrial Septal Defect shunting from left to right, the right Atrium is markedly enlarged and fractional shunting 50.3 per cent.'

isaac