Bright Dominic's Journey: A Call for Compassion and Support
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Hi! I am Philip Nwachukwu. On a recent visit to Nigeria, I got involved with this beautiful child. Bright Dominic is a vibrant, bubbly four-year-old child, her smile lighting up any room she enters. However, behind her cheerful demeanor lies a challenging reality – she was born with imperforate anus, a congenital defect where the anal opening is missing or blocked. This condition, occurring in about 1 in 5,000 infants, manifests in various forms, leading to complications like gastrointestinal fistula. Bright Dominic faces this alongside her family, enduring pain and frequent hospital visits.
Her medical journey began at just seven days old, marked by abdominal distention, vomiting, and passage of scanty stool through an abnormal fistulous opening. Despite undergoing a divided colostomy, she requires two corrective surgeries: a posterior sagittal anorectoplasty and later a colostomy closure. The financial strain prevented her from accessing timely treatment, prolonging her suffering.
Bright Dominic’s initial medical report is reproduced below:
THE ABOVE-NAMED PATIENT PRESENTED TO OUR FACILITY ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF LIFE WITH ABOVE ANAL OPENING, ABNORMAL FISTULOUS OPENING WITHIN THE INTROITUS (AN ENTRANCE INTO A CANAL OR HOLLOW ORGAN) AND ASSOCIATED PASSAGE OF SCANTY STOOL FROM THE FISTULA ABDOMINAL DISTENTION AND VOMITING.
SHE WAS BEING MANAGED AS ANORECTAL MALFORMATION WITH POORLY DECOMPRESSING RECTO VESTIBULAR FISTULA, SHE SUBSEQUENTLY HAD A DIVIDED COLOSTOMY. HOWEVER, SHE WILL REQUIRE A TWO STAGES CORRECTIVE SURGERY, FIRST A POSTERIOR SAGITTAL ANORECTOPLASTY, THEN LATER A COLOSTOMY CLOSURE.
Bright has been going through a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering since birth. The above surgery was initially scheduled in 2022, but to vast medical expenses to keep her alive and it’s effect on her parents, the required finances were unavailable, so she continued to suffer the pain and infections. Providing food daily has become a huge burden for her parents.
The Serene Lullaby Cuties Care Foundation (SLCCF) stepped in, determined to alleviate Bright's pain and provide her with a chance at a fulfilling life. However, escalating medical costs pose a significant obstacle. Though Lagos University Teaching Hospital has tentatively scheduled surgery, uncertainties surrounding expenses threaten further delays.
On a recent visit by SLCCF, formerly known as “God’s Will Foundation”, located at Suru-Lere, Lagos, Nigeria, Bright was so excited at the sight of the food. Her mother later embarrassingly confessed and revealed that, as at about 2pm that day, when the Founder of the Foundation Ms. Omoshalewa Shukurat Alao arrived with the food supplies, Dominique and her two other siblings had not eaten. She had to keep giving them water to avoid an empty stomach.
SLCCF is determined to see she gets her surgery to give her a fighting chance at life. Unfortunately. The original estimated cost of both surgeries given in 2022 has escalated since, and now is even less than the estimated cost of just the first surgery. Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), which has generously tentatively scheduled a date (exact day not given yet) sometime in June 2024, has declined to commit to any estimates at this time for the second surgery which is estimated to be sometime around December of 2024, due to the unknown fluctuation and rapidly falling value of the local currency.
Several talks, visits and interviews with Bright's parents reveal the difficulties involved in even the simplest hospital visits, which are frequent. Most important is that even the hospital provides estimates or a bill, which must be paid in full before any treatment is given, that is not usually the full cost, Most times, those are just the hospital bills and medications, and other critical items are not available at the hospital and have to be purchase outside of the hospital at extra cost to the patient. So, a hospital estimate is just that and sometimes a patient has to spend even more purchasing medical materials and drugs required for treatment externally from merchants.
To this effect, SLCCF has made a commitment to try and raise some funds to try and cover Bright’s surgery costs and associated expenses. In addition, because of limited out-of-pocket funds, also try and aid and support of food and bare necessities to Bright, her two siblings, and parents through the difficult periods to come now through sometime next year 2025, when Bright should have completed her two surgeries, barring any complications.
SLCCF is requesting your assistance in raising $10,000.00 to get this started and ensure no excuses for the hospital to postpone this surgery again indefinitely, due to lack of funds.
SLCCF has also been supporting an orphanage (Mawumadoka Orphanage Home), located in Ebute-Meta, Lagos, that caters for young orphans or abandoned kids. They recently had a December 2023 Christmas event where the kids’ got gifts and pictures taken with Father Christmas (Santa Claus). This gave a lot of joy and pleasure to these kids. SLCCF also presented the orphanage with clothes, shoes, and many other items for the kids.
Just last week, SLCCF successfully enrolled a bright and brilliant 14-year-old child who had always wanted to go to school but never did due to Cerebral Palsy. She has self-educated herself to date, due to poor and illiterate parents. They paid her full school fees, bought her a new Amazon Tablet required by the school, new clothes and shoes to wear to school, purchased her books and other materials listed by the school, fresh sets of complete underwear clothing, personal hygiene items, made arrangements and paid for her school lunch, at a discount, from a nearby restaurant, whose owner wanted to make her own contribution and promised to make sure she got a well-balanced meal daily.
SLCCF has been in operation for over 5 years now, though it has just officially registered with the Lagos State Government as a foundation.
The Foundation Trustees are:
1. Omoshalewa Shukurat Alao (Trustee)
2. Ebun Ayodele Ayodele (Secretary)
3. Olakunle Ishola Abdulrasheed (Trustee)
4. Opeyemi Hammed Adekoya (Trustee)
The aims and objectives of SLCCF are:
1. To create a happy, warm and exciting environment that is inviting, comfortable, flexible, and manageable for the children
2. To advocate for universal rights of children.
3. To grant scholarships to pursue education and training for less privileged children.
ANY ASSISTANCE TO THIS FOUNDATION TOWARDS IT’S GOALS, WORK AND ADVOCACY FOR UNIVERSAL RIGHTS OF CHILDREN TO QUALITY LIFE WILL GREATLY APPRECIATED. NOTHING IS TOO LITTLE TO CONTRIBUTE.
Organizer
Philip Nwachukwu
Organizer
Zionsville, IN