Stay humble and vigilant. Until January 15, 2008, Chinonso Judith Ericson lived a vivacious life. The future was loaded with amazing promises for her and everything was going on smoothly according to her plans.
But on that fateful day, the 31-year-old lady was involved in an auto crash in Abeokuta while returning to Lagos from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State. At the time, she was a final-year student of Foreign Languages at the university. And in one fell swoop, her world crashed like a house of cards, shattering her joy in an unquantifiable way.
According to Daily Sun, she has been bedridden for years, even as she has suffered rejection and abandonment on many occasions. Emotional and physical pain has been her uninvited companion over the years.
Ten years after the incident, and having persevered through the vicissitudes that the accident has plunged her into, she has refused to give up amid the adversities that daily torment her.
She and her younger sister escaped the accident that claimed two lives, while other passengers were left with varying degrees of injury. Unlike her sister, who had slight bruises, Ericson had her two legs and spinal cord fractured.
Narrating her travails to the reporter, she said, having been rejected by two hospitals, her parents were forced to take her to a traditional medicine home. But her problem was compounded while there. She lamented that her immediate family has spent about N5 million to get her to stand on her feet. But all the efforts appear to be futile so far.
Her father died one year after the accident, leaving her mother, Comfort, to shoulder Ericson’s burden alone, throwing her into huge debts.
Ericson missed the chance of graduating from UNIPORT, but, even in her trouble, and re-enrolled for the JAMB examinations and secured admission to study Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), where she is now in her final year. But her condition has deteriorated and she needs urgent medical attention.
Said Dr. Nwosu James of Royal Pinnacle Clinic, Surulere, Lagos: “On presentation, patient was ill-looking, emaciated and in obvious painful distress. She could neither stand nor move the lower limbs. There was extensive cellulitis of both lower limbs up to the knees and feet with foul smelling pus oozing out from several open/infected wounds on both lower limbs.”
Recalling her travails immediately after the accident, Ericson said: “From Sagamu General Hospital, I was taken to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, in Lagos, and I was rejected because my parents did not consent to the clinical diagnosis, which was to amputate my legs. So, they told my parents to fly me abroad. Again, I was rejected at the Nigerian Railway Hospital, Lagos, where they said they did not have the facility to take care of me.”
While combining treatment and studies, she has undergone two surgeries. But she has been told that a third surgery would be needed for her to be fit again.
“I was discharged in 2012. Since I could move about with crutches, I told my mum that I would love to return to school. She refused out of pity for me but l later convinced her that I was mentally fit, that I could cope.
“In 2013, I was admitted into the NOUN, but I took ill again because of the stress. I was in hospital for three months. In 2014, I started all over again and had managed till my final year, which was supposed to be last year.
“In 2016, at my school’s function, Dr. Yolanda George Davies, a UN ambassador and founder of Bethel Foundation, saw me and took interest in my case and invited me over to her hospital for examination.
“During the examination, she discovered that the drug I was taking was killing my cells. She became my personal doctor and changed my treatment and within a space of one year, I started having some sensation in my legs and blood started flowing.
“But sometime in November, the pain resurfaced and I can no longer move even with crutches. During a medical check, it was discovered that the wound has been infected and has been overstretched. The doctor said I am due for surgery to be done abroad, and it that it would cost about N7 million.”
The patient is being managed on wound dressing but Dr. Davies strongly recommended that she should seek expert management. The doctor said the patient’s lower limbs require further corrective surgery, which might include skin grafting and bone lengthening.
Ericson is appealing to kind-hearted Nigerians, corporate and humanitarian organisations as well as the government to come to her aid.
“I have been told that I would need N7 million to undergo two corrective surgeries, skin grafting and bone lengthening, in India to fix my legs,” she said.
Anyone willing to assist the lady may contact her on 07063451934 and 09099306574, while her mum could be reached on 08034438335. Payment could also be made to the GTB account number, 0137719366. The account name is Ericson Chinonso Judith.
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