BY CHIOMA OBINNA
The gift of sight is one no one would want to throw to the dust under any circumstances. So precious is the ability to see that only an exceptional few would willingly give it away.

Only those who know how life can be without the ability to see can imagine  the agony of  35-year- old Roselyn Etsemobor – a lady who is totally blind in the left eye, and right eye, which although still retains  ability to see, is  afflicted with a strange and unsightly growth.

A Fashion Designer, Roselyn, who is still single, has long abandoned her trade and currently has no source of income to write home about, even as the growth on her eye is  seriously threatening her last hold on the world of the sighted.

Narrating her ordeal,  she said it  all began like a protracted catarrh about 10 years ago. “When it began, I went to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). They did X-ray and the doctor said that they could not find anything, so I could not be treated. I went on with the catarrh for years.

“I came to Lagos in 2004,  the catarrh stopped and I thought  everything was okay, but soon the right eye started swelling. I went to the General Hospital, Ikorodu. Several tests did not find what the problem was.

“When my left eye began going blind, and only the swollen right eye could see, I was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and subsequently Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

At these hospitals, the problem was detected and urgent intervention is  required to correct the abnormality to save Roselyn from going permanently blind.

Thanks to efforts of Ekklesia International Centre,  an NGO,  a life-saving surgery has been scheduled for Roselyn for December 6, 2011 in the USA.

A team of doctors at a major eye specialist hospital and research institute in Memphis, Tennessee, in the USA who reviewed her CT scan reports and other medical records, have prescribed a combination of treatments and surgical intervention are  needed to save her eye and her life. But there is a hitch. This all-important intervention amounts to a nerve wracking N15.0 million.

Findings show that estimated total cost of surgery for orbit mass with code numbers; 224.1 benign neoplasm, orbit and 67412, orbitotomy  by UT Medical Group from the Dept of Ophthalmology, Hamilton Eye Institute, Memphis, Tennessee revealed that Roselyn, needs $888.00 for physician fee, $3500.00 for facility fee and 23-hr observation; $1125.00 for anesthesia fee, $468.00 for pathology, $315.00 for pre-op Laboratory, $628.00 for CT of Orbits and $1218.00 for MRI of orbits totaling $8142.00, discount inclusive.

Even as you read this, Roselyn has only 36 days  to raise the N15.0 million for the surgery.

“I cannot afford this huge sum. I am calling on Nigerians to assist me so that I may be back on my feet. I want to be useful to myself and the entire world, affecting my generation for good. I don’t want to be useless,” she told Good Health Weekly amidst tears.

Chief Executive of Ekklesia International Centre, Pastor Paul Achem, revealed that Roselyn’s planned medical intervention would involve three doctors from different specialties.

Achem who lamented Roselyn’s  agony  urged Nigerians to see donations towards her treatment as their own  gift to restore her sight.

He appealed to allNigerians, particularly the Edo State Governor Adams Oshimole  and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola and to help towards the life-saving surgery scheduled for December 06, 2011 in USA.

Achem said mission of the centre is guided by Psalm 82:3 – 4; “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked”.

He said operations of the NGO  said their intervention is usually in a 3-fold burden or heart cry which they refer as 3R Mandate.

“The three mandates are Rescue, Restore and Release. We rescue those bound by disease, ignorance and poverty These three are intertwined and actually have become a vicious circle. Restore: We restore them to the victorious life God has planned for them from the beginning. In the third phase, we release them to fulfill their destiny in life as solution providers to their generation.

For Roselyn, we are presently operating at the rescue level and concentrating on the disease aspect. We are doing it with a passion. Compassion is not enough to get results; passion is.