“My name is Ovo Dick; I’m from Urhuvworhun, Delta State. I was born in 1970 and am 53 years old.
“I got married to an Urhuvworhun man, but he is no longer alive. He died in 2004. I have five children—two boys and three girls.
“After my husband died, I relocated with my children to Bayelsa State. There, we were hustling and living life peacefully.
“It was one fateful day in 2016 when I was hawking plantain that a fuel tanker transporting fuel from Ebiema Junction to Port Harcourt ran over my left leg.
“The incident happened after I had made sales for that day and I had gone to the market to get what to cook for my children and I was about to board a motorcycle that would take me home.
“After the crushing of my leg by the tanker, I was taken to Shelter Hospital at Ogbogini and we spent about N130,000 for the one week we stayed there. I was discharged with little improvement on the leg.
“After I was discharged, I was taken to a Yoruba man who promised to treat the leg and bring it back to the way it was and that was when I found out that I have diabetes.
“I have been in this condition for almost eight years. My people have done their best and left me to my fate, that is why I’m trying to help myself by begging for alms.
“My children are in Bayelsa State trying to make ends meet for themselves. My first child is 25 years old. All of them are done with secondary school, but because I couldn’t finance their education because of the state I am in, they are hustling for themselves.
“Before the incident, I was also hawking bread, so after the incident, I went back to my former place of work and pleaded with them to give me bread to sell.
“So I was being given bread to sell three times a week. However, I couldn’t continue because it seemed like the leg was getting worse.
“When my siblings noticed that, they took me to Warri Central Hospital; I stayed there for almost seven months but there was no improvement either. I couldn’t even complete the hospital bill before I was discharged.
“My mother is still alive and she is 85 years old. I have brothers and they have tried their best. You know it’s not easy, everybody has their issues.
“When the incident happened, it was my brother who carried me on his back to the hospital. If they have, they normally support me but to buy diabetes medicine while feeding is not easy at all.
“If I need diabetes drugs and I don’t have the money to buy them, I normally come to the market to beg for alms so that I can buy them.
“If I don’t take the treatment when necessary, which is a three-day interval, worms will be coming out of the leg.
“I can’t even use water to clean it; what I use is drip. The main reason I’m in the market begging for alms is basically to get drugs for the treatment.
“If I get the exact drugs that I normally use and take, I won’t be having pain in the leg. Also, if I am unable to eat the food I’m supposed to eat and eat food that contains sugar, the pains will intensify.
“The real food I’m supposed to take as a diabetes patient is ground plantain and unripe plantain. A dose of the drug costs N3,000 and that only lasts for three days.
“I have been begging for alms for two years now. If it doesn’t rain, I make more than N3000 on good days. I don’t come out on rainy days because it worsens the pain.
“It is the money I get from this begging that I use in feeding and house rent. I do everything myself at home. I bathe by myself, I cook and I clean my one-room apartment myself.
“My children are trying for me in the little ways they can. During the festive period, my last born bought diabetes rice for me and it cost N19,500. I have attended some churches in a bit to get rid of this painful leg.”
Mrs Ovo Dick was found standing, with the support of crutches, on one leg and beckoning on passersby to help her with any amount so she could eat and buy her drugs. The meeting point in the new year was along the popular Hausa Quarters, Warri, Delta State.
The 53-year-old widow had a black bag resting on her chest and a rope across her neck, that was where she took Saturday Tribune on her journey, stating how she lost her husband, how a moving fuel truck ran over her leg, and how she ended up with crutches for support as a result of the injury she sustained that has refused to heal.
The pathetic story of Ovo Dick underscores the state of medical care in the country and its attendant cost of drugs which has gone beyond the reach of the poor. She believes that the Nigerian government isn’t doing enough to cater for the health of its citizens.
“Maintaining a terminal illness like diabetes shouldn’t have been this expensive if the government cared for its people. It’s a death sentence to be sick nowadays let alone have a terminal ailment.
“The Nigerian government should help the poor, especially in the area of diseases like this. Drugs should be made cheap for the masses so that diseases that are manageable do not kill us untimely.
“It’s enough that we feed from hand to mouth, but to start begging again in order to buy drugs for ailments is nothing, but a death sentence. It’s too much on us.
“If the government cannot help to subsidise health care for the poor and they can’t reduce our pains in the area of feeding reasonably, let them kuku ask us to go and die and begin to rule over trees and animals.
“We’re dying. I’m dying by the day. Can life ever return to what it used to be with me? Can I ever regain my health and begin to fend for myself rather than begging for alms? Is this how I’d end my life? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,” she concluded her story sobbing.
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