Three years ago a medical outreach featuring some Indian doctors was held at Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital, Nassarawa, Kano. It took place on August 15 and 16, 2023.
The outreach offered treatment and simple surgery to scores of less-privileged individuals (male and female, young and old) who could not afford costs of treatments for themselves.
Organized by Kano-based Al-Sadal Services Limited, in partnership with Aakash Healthcare from India, the patients were offered free consultation, drugs and surgical services for orthopedic, urology and spinal cord cases.
By the end of the exercise about 40 of them were identified by the doctors as having serious cases which required special surgical operations that would cost millions of Naira.
As the patients could not pay for such expensive operations it was decided that a passionate appeal for sponsorship/assistance be made to the state governor, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, through the state Commissioner for Health.
The patients welcomed the idea and happily applied individually, through the organisers, with high hope and confidence that the governor, generally considered by Kano people as compassionate, sympathetic and kind, would approve their requests.
Among those chosen, I must admit, is my son who had a surgery earlier resulting in deformity in his right kneecap after fixation by Elizarov of a ‘wedge fracture of the upper tibia.’ This caused the left leg to outgrow the right one after some years, making him to limp as he walks.
However, after a long wait for response from the state government I learned after calling one of the organisers recently that the requests were unfortunately not approved.
Thus, I hereby wish to humbly appeal to Governor Abba Kabir to please revisit the case with a view to possibly approving release of the required funds for the treatment of the patients.
This is because doing so under the prevailing economic circumstances would save them from having to continue to suffer from their respective ailments for the rest of their lives.
Alternatively, however, the government should at least consider footing the bill for a few of the 40 indigent patients, as half a loaf – or even one-quarter – is better than none.