Date: 2017-02-10

Abdulsobur Jimoh is six and a half years old and has a hole in his heart. The young lad has spent most of his days in hospital, while such visits to the doctors are not yet over for him. He underwent two major surgeries before he turned three and now he still needs to go under the scalpel for another major operation.

Abdulsobur, son of an Ilorin, Kwara state based electrician, has been diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a rare condition that occurs in one out of every 2,000 newborns. The lay man calls his condition, 'hole in the heart'. The hole in the heart of this lad expectedly has also dug a deep hole in the pockets of his parents.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, his father, Tajudeen (54) and mother Kudirat, (50) said they currently spent a minimum of N30, 000 on every hospital admission for the lad. And he visited the hospital nearly every month.

For an electrician married to a petty trader, this is an enormous expenditure, more so in a recessed economy where electrical jobs are getting more scarce as householders resort to Do It Yourself (DIY) maintenance of their properties.

But if N30, 000 per month is enormous, much more demanding for this poor family is the financial outlay of the surgical operation that can put an end to Abdulsobur's misery. A consultant paediatrician/cardiologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Dr. J.K. Afolabi who has been managing Abdulsobur has written a letter to the public on behalf of his young patient.

He said it would cost some N3.5 million to perform the necessary corrective surgery on the heart in an Indian Hospital. When you add the cost of air tickets, other logistics and management of the patient after surgery and the continually sliding rate of the naira to the dollar, the cost could increase by about N2.5m, meaning that the family needs a princely N6million.

It was the reality about what not getting this fund could mean for the only boy in a family of four that drove Tajudeen out to the public. And he has not been disappointed by the kind hearted Nigerians. According to him, since his son's case was first made public late last year, good-hearted Nigerians had contributed a sum of N1.5 million into the special account opened for the project.

For anyone willing to assist young Abdulsobur, the contacts and financial assistance could be made through: Tajudeen Jimoh-Guaranty Trust Bank-Account number-0109495526. Phone number: 08052025173.