TheCable

The mother is a widow – and then this

An eerie air hangs over the Intensive Care Unit of Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja as Mrs Love Emeto, a widow whose daughter, Ogechi Emeto,15, was caught up in the May Day bomb blast at Nyanya waits for news about her daughter’s state. She has been at the hospital since the day her daughter was admitted spending rough nights and irksome mornings there.

She explains that Ogechi, her only daughter, was going to a vigil the night she was mauled in the tragedy.

Mrs Emeto, who lives at Kpegi which is within the Jikwoyi-Karu axis of Abuja says she has been struggling to bring up her children since the death of their father, which was six months after the birth of Ogechi. The somber condition of her daughter adds to her woes for she has been subsisting on the benevolent repast of friends and relatives.

She was a school caterer at Anglican Comprehensive Kpegi, until she was forced out of the job because she had no one to speak for her. Now she does brisk business to augment whatever she gets from relatives.

Her second son, Nzube, who was at the hospital at the time TheCable visited is a senior secondary school 2 student while Ogechi is a junior secondary school 3 student. Mrs Emeto labours tirelessly to keep them in school.

Nzube, made bold by grief, simply wants his sister back and strong.

Ogechi’s condition is heart-rending. She has severe burns which wraps entire her body, and multiple fractures – in the arm and in the leg. Her chilling screams of pain pierced through the sealed doors of the Intensive Care Unit to the verandah where we were. She lies helplessly in bed writhing in pain.

Her mother tells us that feeding her is difficult because her lips are sore. She takes mostly liquids, and her minders help in removing her waste matter.

“I just want my sister to be OK”

Mrs Emeto is thankful for the government’s support; however she cries that her daughter needs more.

Pacing about with gloom emblazoned on her face, she says wearily: “Whatever can be done to help my daughter, to save her, let it be done even if it means taking her abroad.”

A UN bomb blast victim, Member Feese, had once complained about the poor service at the government hospital where she was admitted after the UN bomb blast. She had to be taken abroad for specialised care. She said: “My frustration is that I cannot get specialised care at home.”

Ogechi needs urgent surgery, but for “medical reasons” her surgery has been delayed.

Dr Obi, a cousin of the victim, thanks the government for the free medical services and food given to his relative. However, he adds that when the government says something is free it is not “very free”.

Mrs Emeto needs the help of all Nigerians, mostly especially for her daughter to get superlative medical treatment abroad. Her daughter’s condition has not improved significantly since the blast.