By EBELE ONUORAH

Mr. Obasi Ogbonaya

He cannot talk or eat. The right side of his face is swollen and is still spreading. He cannot see with his right eye. Sleep has become a taboo at night in our house.” These was the lamentation of Esther Obasi Ogbonnaya whose husband, Obasi Ogbonna is down with cancer.

When Esther walked into Vanguard’s Head Office in Lagos last week, it was obvious all was not well with her. Looking disturbed, she sat quietly holding her husband’s photograph, waiting patiently to relate her story to this reporter. She began: “My husband’s predicament is bad to the extent that he cannot talk because of the pains in his tongue. He needs N6 million for a surgery,” she pleaded. Doctors handling his case describe Obasi’s ailment as Malignancy Metastatic Disease.

The 50-year-old father of three from Abia State, is currently wriggling in serious pain caused by the condition. He is already blind in one eye and doctors say the other eye is at risk.

It all began in August 2009 when Obasi felt an itch with a tingling sensation on the right side of his tongue accompanied by severe headache on the right side of his head. He went to a nearby chemist shop to purchase pain relieving drugs believing it was a minor pain.

Though he got temporary relief, the impending disease kept developing.

One morning in November 2009, he felt a sharp pain on the right side of his jaw while shaving and the itching and pangs in his head returned. He alerted his wife. “We immediately rushed him to the Military Hospital.,Yaba where he underwent series of tests”. Esther noted. But he (Obasi) was taken back to the hospital in October 2010 for further treatment where it was suspected to be a tumor. We were advised to go for a CT scan to diagnose the exact problem. It was not until January 2011, after series of tests including eye, teeth and ear at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) that it was finally confirmed to be Malignancy Metastatic Disease. Also, further scans at Me Cure Healthcare Ltd, Oshodi and a biopsy from LUTH confirmed the results.

Esther confessed things had not been easy with the family financially and otherwise.

“When it all started, we were not reluctant to spend money paying for drugs and tests. We did not even take note of how much we had spent until it dawned on us that we had spent all we had in search for cure and yet the situation was getting worse”.

She appealed to well- meaning Nigerians, corporate organisations, Abia State governor Theodore Orji, and Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola to save her husband from certain death. “I don’t want to lose my husband” she appealed.

If you are touched by Obasi’s plight, please call Esther Ogbonnaya on 08033557270 & 07056380924 for further details.