| Cruel fate
...He was an athlete in the university. Now, he may be bedridden
for the rest of his life
From ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Until two years ago, his life seemed to be on a well-charted
course. As an undergraduate of the University of Maiduguri,
28-year-old Clifford Hyamber enjoyed good health and his future
seemed very much assured. But all that changed suddenly. Now
paralysed and bedridden, the young man’s life has taken
a round-about turn for the worse. His agony and pains could
only be imagined.
At his family’s Tor Donga Street residence in Wadata
area of Makurdi recently, Clifford presented a pathetic picture
as he laid helplessly on bed. He could barely move his shrunken
hands to welcome the reporter.
He said: "It all started in the early hours of September
1, 2006. Then, as a hundred level student of the University
of Maiduguri, the school was preparing for the NUGA games,
which it was billed to play host to. And in the light of that,
the school was involved in various interdepartmental as well
as fellowship games preparatory to the NUGA games.
We were done with the departmental training and then commenced
the fellowship training and exercises. It was at that point
that I grabbed the cross bar of the football goal post and
in an attempt to pull myself up, which was my routine training
exercise, my hand snapped and I fell, hit my back on ground
with a thud and passed out.
"I regained consciousness at the intense care unit of
the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital some days later
only to discover that, apart from my head, I couldn’t
move any other part of my body, neither could I feel any sensation
anywhere. It was at that point that I was told I had a spinal
shock. My three months of stay in the teaching hospital could
not help much. I have remained bedridden since then, with
no tangible help coming from anywhere. My mother is a primary
school teacher and our dad died eight years ago, leaving my
mother with four siblings for this to befall me and the family."
His voice falters a bit while hot tears cascaded down his
cheeks.
"I have suddenly become a burden to my siblings and my
suffering mother. How can fate and life be so cruel to the
helpless and needy?", he lamented.
He paused a bit, looked into the reporter’s eyes and
said: "Please tell the world to come to my aid. My cry
is for my siblings who have gone through hell for me, but
I know that with better medical attention I will walk again.
The doctors told me that and I am holding firmly to it."
A devoted member of the prayer band at the Living Faith Church,
Yola branch, where he once lived with an uncle, Clifford’s
entrance into the university to study was a signal of a brighter
future that was to culminate in his taking up the challenges
of catering for his three siblings and poor mother. Fate,
however, had other plans, as his dreams have been cut short
by that rather bizarre accident.
For two years, he has relied on a medical equipment, catheter,
to evacuate his bladder. Each day, his mum and siblings take
turn to bathe and feed him, while bedsores have infested a
better part of his back. A sight of the young man would make
even the stone-hearted shed tears.
Also crying for help on behalf of her son was Mrs. Cecilia
Hyamber, a widow and teacher at the NKST Primary School, Wadata,
Makurdi, in Benue State. She disclosed that since the day
of the accident, the essence of her life had been terminated,
as she daily watches her helpless first son on the hospital
bed.
Narrating her pains and the anguish of seeing her beloved
son bedridden for close to two years, Mrs. Cecilia Hyamber,
in an emotion laden voice, said she took up the challenge
to give her children sound and qualitative education even
with her meager salary after her husband’s death in
2000.
Said she: "Through Clifford’s first year in school,
I managed to push through financially, but with the joy that
my first child will, in no time, come out a graduate to assist
in the upbringing of his younger ones. In the first week of
October 2006, a month after the accident, I got a call from
his uncle who stays in Maiduguri inviting me to come over.
"The invitation jolted me, but I had to travel down to
Maiduguri only to see my son glued to a bed in the hospital.
That was the day my world actually came to an end. Thank God,
I didn’t end up a patient at the hospital, because his
condition threw me off balance. This was a boy I saved every
Naira of my little salary as a teacher to send to school only
for him to end up almost lifeless on a bed of a teaching hospital,
and till today no changes.
Who will help me carry this heavy burden?," she wondered.
According to the distraught widow, after several shuttles
between Makurdi and Maiduguri, in order not to lose either
her job and her son, she was asked to take her son home by
the doctors who also recommended that the boy be taken to
the National Hospital in Abuja for further medical attention
and advice.
She said rather than heed the advice of the doctors and take
her son to the National Hospital Abuja, she brought him home
because she could not raise the money to foot the bills at
the Abuja hospital.
"You may not believe it, but the truth is that my salary
as a primary school teacher can hardly sustain me and the
children. How can I do it? The truth is that my son’s
condition has made my life a misery," she said.
Asked what she intends to do next about her son’s condition,
the distressed widow sighed and said: "What can I do?.
Please help me tell Governor Gabriel Suswam, who has made
the cause of the common man his personal responsibility, tell
public spirited Nigerians and NGOs to come to our aid. This
young man was full of life until he was cut down by the unfortunate
accident and the burden is beyond me". As she spoke,
tears kept rolling down.
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