Help Uncle Mohammed Use His Arm Again
Donation protected
Asalamu alaikum and greetings to you all. Thank you so very much for taking the 1st step and clicking on the link to view my plea.
At first, I was very reluctant to make a gofundme page. My fears were that people would not take it seriously or worse, would accuse of ulterior motives. But, honesty always wins and we honestly do not have the means to pay for this surgery by our selves. So, here goes nothing. Bismillah.
His Story
My dear uncle Mohammed Hussaini who is visiting from Nigeria is in need of our support. 13 years ago, Uncle Mohammed was in a fatal bus accident while traveling in Nigeria (I say fatal because he was actually pronounced 'dead' on the scene...I'll come back to this point later). In route from Minna, Nigeria to Kano, Nigeria, the driver lost control of the bus carrying several passengers and flipped the vehicle several times. During this accident, Uncle Mohammed was thrown from the vehicle. His right ear was severed from his head and hung by just the earlobe. His left arm was shattered in 3 places and the bones were completely broken (complete fracture). Onlookers rushed to the scene to try to help the victims of this accident. Uncle Mohammed lay there, unconscious with no pulse.
Those of you who have traveled to various impoverished countries in Africa and other parts of the world know that adequate healthcare and medical innovations come secondary to the stuffing of greedy pockets. Because of this, Nigerians are subjected to 2nd, 3rd or 4th handed healthcare; the bottom of the barrel care. It's not that they don't have genuine Physicians; but exactly how much can one do with little to no funding or supplies? I say all of this to give you an idea about why this issue was not just fixed at a nifty little hospital in the city. Back to my uncle.
So, Uncle Mohammed's lifeless body was picked up by civilians and placed in the back of a pickup truck. If it wasn’t for a small torn piece of paper that my uncle had written his name, and city of residence on, the civilians would have been driving around aimlessly. The civilians drove to his town and general neighborhood asking people 'do you know this man? His family?’ Trying to identify him. Sounds like a hopeless case right? Imagine driving around your city searching for the relatives of a bleeding and severely injured unconscious man with no picture I.D.
By the mercy of Allah swt (God), a distant cousin of my uncle happened to be passing by and saw the crowd of people surrounding my uncle’s still lifeless body on the bed of the truck. Pushing his way to the front, the cousin initially did not recognize my uncle and walked away. Then, something made him go back to take a second look; he then felt as though he recognized him (although my uncle was swollen beyond recognition and badly wounded all over). The man began yelling 'I know this man, I know this man! He began calling my uncle ‘boda, boda!’ Boda means 'my brother' used as a term of endearment in the Yoruba language. SubhanAllah (glory be to God), my uncle tried to open his eyes a little and answered weakly ‘yes’. Horrified, the cousin instructed the civilians to follow him to double check with his relatives'. My family was informed that the ‘dead’ man they had heard about was in fact their father, husband, uncle, grandfather and brother. They were told that he had shown signs of life and would be rushed to the hospital. Frantic and grieving, relatives from the neighborhood caught transportation to the hospital.
At the hospital, basic ‘patch up’ procedures were done the first day in order to fix my uncle’s outward abrasions and to reattach his ear. However, the staff did not even notice that his arm was broken until much later. They then said that he must be transferred to a specialty hospital in the city so that they could attempt to fix the multiple fractures in his arm. At the hospital, three surgeries were done. The first was an unsuccessful one in which a metal plate was attached to the bones in order to bind the broken bones and flesh together. However, this procedure left my uncle in grimacing pain; every move was like being stabbed over and over again as the plates were scraping again the flesh in his arm. The arm would not heal that way, so a couple more surgeries were done in attempt to reattach the bones in his arm but all were unsuccessful; even with all the pain and ‘recovery’, his arm did not heal.
My parents exhausted their savings trying to pay for my uncle’s multiple surgeries as prices for healthcare are not low even in Nigeria. They hoped that he would one day be able to come to the United States to have his arm fixed. But, that was a longshot because my mother had been applying for visas for her family to come here for 30 years to no avail. In order to leave Nigeria, you have to present evidence that you have a reason to come back; usually, that reason is some sort of thriving business. But, my family is poor.
The Now
Fast-forward, 13 years after his traumatic accident and 30 years of visas attempts from my mother, Uncle Mohammed was granted a visitor’s visa to the United States! My uncle has been in the states since April of this year. Since then, my parents have gotten my uncle’s arm checked out by Surgeons in North Carolina. After many x-rays and assessments, one of the best surgeons at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, NC explained that in order to properly fix my uncle’s arm, they would have to do a procedure that consist of two operations. The procedure, with recovery time, will take approximately 6 months. With now being one of the greatest and probably the only opportunity for my uncle to undergo this two-fold procedure before returning to Nigeria, we, as a family are backed into a brick wall financially and are literally pinching pennies trying to come up with the money before the end of this month (June).
The Surgeon agreed to do the procedure for a discounted rate and take my uncle’s case as one of his allotted discounted procedures for those with low-income. Despite all of this, the procedure will still cost upwards of $8,500 (this does NOT include the hospital stay and fees. It basically boils down to this, either we find some way to raise the money for his surgery or we send him back home to Nigeria still unable to use his left arm. For us, that would be devastating.
My uncle is a teacher by trade and does not make enough money to even feed his family all the time. The government does not always pay its teachers on time. Sometimes they do not receive any pay for months at a time. My parents send money over to support my family in Nigeria but those funds too are limited.
We are asking for donations to help us pay for Uncle Mohammed’s surgeries. The money will only cover the surgeon fees for the procedure. We are trying to come up with all additional expenses. We are all working towards that, inshAllah (God-willing). With your monetary support, we will be that much closer to getting Uncle Mohammed the surgery that he needs. We would love to see him be able to use his left arm again. With the use of his left arm, he will inshAllah be able to better provide for his family in Nigeria and interact with the world a little easier. That is my hope for him; to be able to utilize both arms to help himself and his family inshAllah.
Please help my uncle by giving what you can. Whether that is $1 or $1000, your support will not go unrewarded inshAllah (God-willing). Also, please share this link and help us spread the word. May Allah swt (God-Almighty) reward you in this life and the next. Say Ameen. :)
At first, I was very reluctant to make a gofundme page. My fears were that people would not take it seriously or worse, would accuse of ulterior motives. But, honesty always wins and we honestly do not have the means to pay for this surgery by our selves. So, here goes nothing. Bismillah.
His Story
My dear uncle Mohammed Hussaini who is visiting from Nigeria is in need of our support. 13 years ago, Uncle Mohammed was in a fatal bus accident while traveling in Nigeria (I say fatal because he was actually pronounced 'dead' on the scene...I'll come back to this point later). In route from Minna, Nigeria to Kano, Nigeria, the driver lost control of the bus carrying several passengers and flipped the vehicle several times. During this accident, Uncle Mohammed was thrown from the vehicle. His right ear was severed from his head and hung by just the earlobe. His left arm was shattered in 3 places and the bones were completely broken (complete fracture). Onlookers rushed to the scene to try to help the victims of this accident. Uncle Mohammed lay there, unconscious with no pulse.
Those of you who have traveled to various impoverished countries in Africa and other parts of the world know that adequate healthcare and medical innovations come secondary to the stuffing of greedy pockets. Because of this, Nigerians are subjected to 2nd, 3rd or 4th handed healthcare; the bottom of the barrel care. It's not that they don't have genuine Physicians; but exactly how much can one do with little to no funding or supplies? I say all of this to give you an idea about why this issue was not just fixed at a nifty little hospital in the city. Back to my uncle.
So, Uncle Mohammed's lifeless body was picked up by civilians and placed in the back of a pickup truck. If it wasn’t for a small torn piece of paper that my uncle had written his name, and city of residence on, the civilians would have been driving around aimlessly. The civilians drove to his town and general neighborhood asking people 'do you know this man? His family?’ Trying to identify him. Sounds like a hopeless case right? Imagine driving around your city searching for the relatives of a bleeding and severely injured unconscious man with no picture I.D.
By the mercy of Allah swt (God), a distant cousin of my uncle happened to be passing by and saw the crowd of people surrounding my uncle’s still lifeless body on the bed of the truck. Pushing his way to the front, the cousin initially did not recognize my uncle and walked away. Then, something made him go back to take a second look; he then felt as though he recognized him (although my uncle was swollen beyond recognition and badly wounded all over). The man began yelling 'I know this man, I know this man! He began calling my uncle ‘boda, boda!’ Boda means 'my brother' used as a term of endearment in the Yoruba language. SubhanAllah (glory be to God), my uncle tried to open his eyes a little and answered weakly ‘yes’. Horrified, the cousin instructed the civilians to follow him to double check with his relatives'. My family was informed that the ‘dead’ man they had heard about was in fact their father, husband, uncle, grandfather and brother. They were told that he had shown signs of life and would be rushed to the hospital. Frantic and grieving, relatives from the neighborhood caught transportation to the hospital.
At the hospital, basic ‘patch up’ procedures were done the first day in order to fix my uncle’s outward abrasions and to reattach his ear. However, the staff did not even notice that his arm was broken until much later. They then said that he must be transferred to a specialty hospital in the city so that they could attempt to fix the multiple fractures in his arm. At the hospital, three surgeries were done. The first was an unsuccessful one in which a metal plate was attached to the bones in order to bind the broken bones and flesh together. However, this procedure left my uncle in grimacing pain; every move was like being stabbed over and over again as the plates were scraping again the flesh in his arm. The arm would not heal that way, so a couple more surgeries were done in attempt to reattach the bones in his arm but all were unsuccessful; even with all the pain and ‘recovery’, his arm did not heal.
My parents exhausted their savings trying to pay for my uncle’s multiple surgeries as prices for healthcare are not low even in Nigeria. They hoped that he would one day be able to come to the United States to have his arm fixed. But, that was a longshot because my mother had been applying for visas for her family to come here for 30 years to no avail. In order to leave Nigeria, you have to present evidence that you have a reason to come back; usually, that reason is some sort of thriving business. But, my family is poor.
The Now
Fast-forward, 13 years after his traumatic accident and 30 years of visas attempts from my mother, Uncle Mohammed was granted a visitor’s visa to the United States! My uncle has been in the states since April of this year. Since then, my parents have gotten my uncle’s arm checked out by Surgeons in North Carolina. After many x-rays and assessments, one of the best surgeons at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, NC explained that in order to properly fix my uncle’s arm, they would have to do a procedure that consist of two operations. The procedure, with recovery time, will take approximately 6 months. With now being one of the greatest and probably the only opportunity for my uncle to undergo this two-fold procedure before returning to Nigeria, we, as a family are backed into a brick wall financially and are literally pinching pennies trying to come up with the money before the end of this month (June).
The Surgeon agreed to do the procedure for a discounted rate and take my uncle’s case as one of his allotted discounted procedures for those with low-income. Despite all of this, the procedure will still cost upwards of $8,500 (this does NOT include the hospital stay and fees. It basically boils down to this, either we find some way to raise the money for his surgery or we send him back home to Nigeria still unable to use his left arm. For us, that would be devastating.
My uncle is a teacher by trade and does not make enough money to even feed his family all the time. The government does not always pay its teachers on time. Sometimes they do not receive any pay for months at a time. My parents send money over to support my family in Nigeria but those funds too are limited.
We are asking for donations to help us pay for Uncle Mohammed’s surgeries. The money will only cover the surgeon fees for the procedure. We are trying to come up with all additional expenses. We are all working towards that, inshAllah (God-willing). With your monetary support, we will be that much closer to getting Uncle Mohammed the surgery that he needs. We would love to see him be able to use his left arm again. With the use of his left arm, he will inshAllah be able to better provide for his family in Nigeria and interact with the world a little easier. That is my hope for him; to be able to utilize both arms to help himself and his family inshAllah.
Please help my uncle by giving what you can. Whether that is $1 or $1000, your support will not go unrewarded inshAllah (God-willing). Also, please share this link and help us spread the word. May Allah swt (God-Almighty) reward you in this life and the next. Say Ameen. :)
Organizer
Maimuna Habeebulah
Organizer
Dearborn, MI
