Billy Abel, Yola
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is no better expression of this aphorism than the recent happening in Adamawa State, where a young blind boy, Edmond Eli, regained his sight after 21 years of groping in the dark.
The lucky boy, who lives in his local town of Kpasham, in Demsa Local Government Area, has been blind for the past 21 years, but was able to behold the world few days ago.
The startling restoration of the young boy’s sight came courtesy of a cataract surgery sponsored by Senator Binos Dauda Yeroa, representing Adamawa South.
On August 12, 2019, Yeroa mobilised a team of medical practitioners consisting of doctors, theatre nurses, laboratory scientists and opthalmologists, among several others to his constituency where they attended to different health challenges of the people at the LCCN Health Centre.
Narrating his family’s ordeal, Eli Humoshe, the father of Edmond said: “The problem started when he was just three years old. Since then it has been so tough for the family until when help came our way. They were playing one day with his mates when suddenly we heard a shout and when we went to pick him we noticed that there was something wrong with his eyes.
“He told us that one of the boys he was playing with had poured some sand into his eyes. We washed his eyes and applied some eye drops. After some days, we realised the problem was still there. We then went to the local clinic, then to Numan Hospital, then to Yola Specialists Hospital, but our boy could still not see.
“He was three years then. The doctors had referred us to a hospital in Kano. We tried all we could to mobilise resources from family and friends who had helped us before to visit other hospitals, but we could not. So, our son Edmond has been blind since then.
“When we heard about this medical outreach programme, we decided we would be here to see the doctors, may be we could get help. On August 14, 2019, he was operated on one of the eyes and on August 16, 2019, they operated the other eye and miraculously, he can see.
“This is a big miracle and a relief to my life and that of my family. We have not been able to do anything for him or take him to school, but that possibility has just reopened for him. We would lookout for where to get him education, may be an adult education. We would do our best to help him.
“If this medical outreach was to be paid for, I would not even think about coming here, because where would I and my family get the money for this treatment? But thanks to Senator Binos, now our Edmond can see, we are very grateful.”
The head of the team of medical outreach, Dr Wycliffe Dar, said: “In the cause of this outreach, we have succeeded in offering a consultation service to about 8030 patients within the past five days. For the general surgery, we have operated on 200 patients and still counting because some are on going in the theatre.
“We have performed about 764 laboratory services, about 1009 general eye care services, 400 glasses were issued to people here.” He explained that the team had experienced challenges in cases where the diagnosis was not certain and had to be referred such cases to the Federal Medical Centre.
The team leader of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), and the coordinator of medical mission for the 700 Club, Elisha Dokyoung, said: “The situation has been quite overwhelming, but also so fulfilling because this is what we have been looking for, the opportunity to touch the lives of the less previleged.
«When we started this work, we saw the father of this boy dragging him around. We enquired what was wrong with him. We were told he was blind on both eyes and later the opthalmologist confirmed that he had cateract on both eyes.
«We were not sure whether he would benefit from it. When a surgery was performed on one of his eyes and he could see, we went ahead to do the surgery on the other. After the surgery, we asked what he saw with my two fingers up, he said I was raising my two fingers up, it was a happy moment.
«So amazing and sad that it took 21 years before he could meet this service but thank God He did. As if the outreach was organised just for him and if it was just that he could see again that this outreach was organised, we are so happy and fulfilled that it happened.
“The senator that organised this must be commended and we are praying that people in power will come up and partner with us to reach out to those in need.”
Yeroe said: “We have more than achieved our target. We earlier planned to reach out to 8000 patients, we have reached more than that, the statistics that I have shows that.
«We are planning for a bigger outreach and to make the medical outreach an annual event and if possible twice a year. The joy on our people’s faces, their families and relatives, justified the outreach, which was just a test run.”