•Family of 7-year-old diagnosed with leukaemia begs for help

By Tessy Igomu

With a pale appearance and split lips, little Stephanie Chikodi Chukwuezi hopped around the waiting room of St. Claire Specialist Hospital, Surulere, Lagos, with a hood covering her hairless head.

In all innocence, she laughed heartily, as she played with her balloon, throwing and catching it in the air.

She’s only seven, but in the last three years, she has known nothing but extreme pain, which has left her battling for life. Routinely, she endures a medical procedure, chemotherapy, the side effects of which many adults dread to even imagine.

Stephanie suffers from Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (Common ALL), a type of blood and bone marrow cancer. Right now, as she lives the day at a time, her life hangs precariously on the line. Unfortunately, the Basic 3 pupil of Young Spring Montessori School, Abraham Adesanya Estate, Ajah, has been kept out of school by the debilitating sickness. 

According to Stephanie’s father, Mr. Martin Chukwuezi, an engineer, from the time she was born, he had a healthy, happy daughter. But when she turned four, the symptoms started, and so did the nightmares for her parents. He confessed that it had been obviously traumatising for the whole family.

The father of five children from Njaba Local Government Area, Imo State, said sadly, within three years, he had spent over N10 million to ensure the survival of his precious daughter.

Recalling his daughter’s heart-rending experience with blood cancer, Chukwuezi said it all started in August 2013, when she fell ill with an infection. He noted that she had a very terrible fever, which was accompanied by cough and was immediately rushed to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, and was placed on admission. He recalled that months after she was discharged, precisely in December, the result of tests earlier carried out on her came out with an alarming verdict: Stephanie had blood cancer.

“In order to save her life, we were referred to Apollo Hospital in India. I mopped up my savings, and together with donations from my church, God’s Kingdom Society (GKS), friends and family members, she travelled to India for treatment. She and her mother, who was still breast-feeding a baby then, stayed for six months but I returned to Nigeria to take up a job appointment. They returned in July 2014, and she continued her chemotherapy treatment at Vedic Life Hospital, here in Lagos. What was spent was over N9 million for the India treatment,” he said.

Stephanie’s father informed that six months after, she started re-vaccination all over again, and had just completed that of 2017, when in April, she became very sick again. He said when a full-blood count test was carried out, it indicated that her haemoglobin and platelets were very low.

“Her haemoglobin was 6.6 and platelets 84,000, when ordinarily, the minimum required of her platelets was 150, 000. When the result was sent to her doctor in India, we were told it was a relapse, that the treatment failed and that cancer had returned. It was a very devastating piece of news for me and my wife. We felt broken because of the type of pain my baby had to endure because of the chemo. It was not the news we expected, because we believed God for a miracle.

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“Since the relapse, which meant the cancer had shot up again in the marrow, her blood platelet, white blood cell and red blood cell were once again, depleted. She was again placed on admission for a day and transfused with a pint of blood. For just one day admission, we paid N100, 000.”

The distraught father said because the hospital did not have a Paediatric Haematology Oncologist, they were referred to St. Claire Specialist Hospital, to have her stabilised, pending when she would travel for a bone marrow transplant in India.

Mr. Chukwuezi said between June 3 and 24, when Stephanie was on admission, she was transfused with 10 pints of blood. He also said that at the time of being admitted, her stool was mixed with blood, adding that she couldn’t walk and was being carried about.

Stephanie’s only dream is to become an engineer. Right now, the only way to ensure that she survives is for an emergency bone marrow transplant to be carried out in India. According to her father, the surgery is expected to cost about 1.5 million rupee (N9 million). He, however, noted that before the surgery, she would be expected to undergo another bout of chemo treatment, in which all the cancer cells would be removed and the level of her white blood cells increased.

“I am, through this medium, crying out to kind-hearted Nigerians to help me. Her doctor said what was needed for the bone marrow transplant in India was about N9 million. This is aside accommodation, feeding and flight expenses. Already, I have perfected her visa requirements,” he said.

Stephanie’s father also lamented that the family had been living at the benevolence of his church, loans from friends and well wishers, adding that that two of his children were no longer in school due to his inability to pay their fees.

Fighting hard to keep his emotion under control, Mr. Chukwuezi said: “Right now, I have no job and I am making effort to put food on the table for my family as well as make provision for their basic needs.

“At the moment, I have no kobo left. But I firmly believe that God can speak silently to kind-hearted individuals to help save my daughter’s life. I need both financial support and prayers. It has not been easy with me. Nigerians should help for the sake of my little girl. She still has a lot ahead of her to achieve.”

Dr. P. Anoop, a professor, senior consultant and haematologist-paediatric oncologist of Apollo Hospital, Bangalore, India, asserted that Stephanie came under Intermediate Risk group.

His words: “The treatment plan is five weeks induction chemotherapy, followed by BM analysis for Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). If MRD is low level, she will not need BM transplantation and will continue on chemotherapy.

“Cost for BM transplantation depends on type of donor. If HLA matched family donor (sibling or parent) is available the cost may be around INR 150,000. If not, the cost will be much higher, depending on the origin of the donor stem cells (India, UK, USA, Germany etc). Roughly, it will be double that amount. CSF is cerebrospinal fluid analysis (to check if blasts are there in the spinal fluid).”

Those wishing to make donations towards saving Stephanie’s life can pay into the Stanbic IBTC account: Martin Ndudi Chukwuezi, 0004591567. The family can also be reached through the following telephone numbers – 08033167025, 08188415667.