•Baby Andrew with his parents Photo: Sun News Publishing

More Stories on This Section

When the parents of baby Andrew Duku of Bayelsa State conceived him, their dream had been for a bouncing baby boy. However, the reverse turned out to be the case. He was born with a defective heart, a life threatening condition known as perimembranous ventricular septal defect that could dispatch him to an early grave.

Ironically, he shares the same birthday with Jesus Christ. But, rather than bring joy and happiness like Christ did to mankind, his life and that of his Andrew needs urgent corrective surgery to enable him live a normal life. Beyond that, he is a victim of the much-dreaded Down syndrome (a condition where an individual has 47 instead of 46 chromosomes). Initially, the fear was that he would not live long. However, he has clung to life with the firm resolve of a survivor. But fears are mounting as time ticks by.

According to his parents, Rev. Anthony and Rosemary Duku, they would not have come to terms with the condition of their baby but for the assistance of the Down Syndrome Association of Nigeria (DSAN).
His Birth
“I was preaching in the church last December, on Christmas day when word reached me that my wife had been delivered of a baby,” recalled his father, a pastor. “It was a thing of joy and a lot of people called him different names and I said that his name is Andrew
because he is going to be a preacher as that was the covenant I made with God concerning his life.”

Devastated
However, his dream for his child died a stillbirth when two months later, the unexpected happened: “We began noticing abnormal growths. We went to a doctor in Warri, who diagnosed Down syndrome. That was the first time I heard the name so I was wondering what Down syndrome was.”
Through a family friend, they got in contact with DSAN after they saw the association's awareness week celebration on Newsline, a national network programme on NTA.

Said his father: “We quickly got their details and immediately contacted the association's president, Mrs. Rose Mordi, who urged us to come to the Ogunlana Drive office of the association in Surulere, Lagos.
Some few days later, we came to the centre and were taken to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for a check up on the health condition of the child.
That was how we discovered that he had a defective heart! It was a big blow to us. I was compelled to question God ‘why are you making me pass through this.’”

According to Andrews’s mother, Rosemary: “I wept. My husband asked God if tears and sorrow were the covenant we had with Him. I was discouraged. We couldn’t pray or preach.”
It took encouraging words from their bishop to confront the problem head on. The association was also helpful as they put them through counseling sessions.

According to the Paediatric Echocardographic report, Baby Andrew has Perimembranous Ventricular Septal defect, which results in a complete endocardial cushion effect, requiring urgent cardiac surgery.
For Mrs. Mordi, DSAN's president: “His condition is critical. We have to put him on anti-heart failure drugs to sustain him and stabilize his condition because the cardiologist said that something needs to be done very quickly. In congenital heart condition, as the baby gets older, the condition deteriorates because the heart is overworked. We are running against time. We need to carry out corrective heart surgery as soon as possible.”

Consequently, to save Baby Andrew, DSAN has launched an appeal to concerned Nigerians at home and in Diaspora to come to the aid of the child. She pleaded that nothing is too small towards saving Andrew. The amount needed for his surgery is N1.2 million.