Janice Ona Odobo is a one-year-old infant, who after surviving severe jaundice at birth, now needs a Cochlear implant to overcome the hearing loss the disease has caused her. Her mother speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the help the family needs from Nigerians to save her life.
Can you explain what exactly has happened to your baby?
She was born on March 23, 2020 and at birth she had sepsis and severe jaundice and had to undergo blood transfusion. She spent her first 18 days in the ICU. The Jaundice was very high in her blood; so, they had to flush out her blood and replace it with another one. It was during the Coronavirus prevalence period. At three months, she was again diagnosed with umbilical hernia and had another surgery that required her to spend another three days in the hospital.
But when she was seven months old, we noticed some strange behaviours in her. We discovered that she was struggling to attain neck control or meet other developmental milestones. We noticed that like normal children at that age, she ought to have been making some sounds and responding to same as well. But as she wasn’t doing any of these, we became curious and reported back to the University College Teaching Hospital, Ibadan (UCH). And the doctor we met said we should go and carry out a hearing test on her as she didn’t respond to any sound the woman made. So we went for the tests at the ENT department of the hospital.
After the test, it was discovered that she has a severe hearing loss, which had made it difficult for her to hear. And that was how we started to run around to find out more about the problem and what we can do to make her hear again. In the course of our investigation, we were told that it was the Jaundice she had at birth that had destroyed her hearing organs, which made it impossible for her to hear any word.
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Was it that the Jaundice wasn’t cleared when her blood was changed at birth?
No, it did, because the doctor confirmed it that the Jaundice was only in her blood and since it has been flushed out of her body and given a new blood, she would be fine. And truly, she has been fine, even though she was born premature as she came out at the eighth month instead of the ninth one. This gave her the tendency to have Jaundice. Though all babies do have Jaundice, her own was very high. Jaundice does so many things to children and when it is very high on them, some of it gets to their brain and damages certain things in it. It can affect the hearing of some of them. It can make some blind and even develop cerebral palsy. So when I gave birth to her, the Jaundice in her blood was very high and that was why she underwent blood transfusion.
But we never knew that the Jaundice had already damaged her hearing, not until when she was seven that we were expecting her to start making some basic sounds. And there was no way we would have known if she had got to that age, because being a baby we wouldn’t be expecting her to be making some sounds if she hadn’t reached the stage to do so. The Jaundice has also caused her cerebral Palsy. So, she hasn’t been strong. And that is why we have been going for therapy at the UCH every week, just for them to check her and give the approach medications. We have been on it since November last year. We had to get hearing aids for her which cost us no less than 400,000 naira.
So what help do you need from Nigerians now?
She has never heard any soft words, cooing and lullabies showered on her by her 4-year old brother or parents. Sadly, she has been in a world of humming silence. So she needs to undergo a Cochlear implant which requires surgery. Her doctors say the surgery needs to be done as early as possible so she can start hearing and learn to speak; and not have to undergo extensive speech therapy. When we made the inquiry from one top hospital abroad, we were told it would cost us $30,000 which amounts to 15 million naira. We are appealing to every Nigerian to assist us with whatever they can to save the baby. We have created an account for her at Zenith Bank with the name Odobo Janice and number: 2052203994.
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