“If the penis does not die young, it must surely eat the bearded fruit,” so said Chinua Achebe in ‘Things Fall Apart.’ Achebe was actually talking about the inevitability of procreation by any full-grown man who decides to walk into the marriage institution.
Every man who takes a wife does so primarily to raise children and then enjoy other perks that go with it.
So, when on April 28, 2001, Mr Cyriacus Chigozie Ezekwe walked down the aisle with his newfound love, he was full of expectation. Friends and relatives that graced the event told him they would come back in another 12 months to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. But fate had a different plan for him. Soon after his marriage he developed a strange illness, which incapacitated him thus dashing the hopes of a new baby as envisaged by friends and relatives.
What started like mere malaria in 2002, according to Ezekwe, eventually weakened his knee joints that he could no longer stand erect not to talk of walking.
Ezekwe, a businessman dealing on second-hand clothes in Lagos before the illness, is today rendered immobile by neuropathic joint, a condition doctors said needed kneecap replacement surgery before he could walk again.
The surgery, which would cost about N3.5million, could either be done at the Lagoon Hospital in Lagos or in India. But he was advised to go to India where there are enough specialist hospitals. At the Lagoon Hospital, he would have to wait until there are two or three similar cases before an expert would be invited from India to perform the surgery.
Speaking about his pains in the past nine years, Ezekwe said: “How I wish there is an instrument that could be used to diagnose my pains so that the machine would be able to tell people what I am going through because nobody would be able to understand it. Only God understands the degree of pains I go through. It has been horrible day and night. I have had cause to ask if it is possible for somebody to be alive and still be in hell.”
For his brother-in-law, Pastor Uche Joshua, it is very pathetic to see a once energetic man relapse into a condition that he needs assistance before he could move from point A to B. “It is very painful when somebody you know very well, who was doing what others are doing and suddenly you see the person not doing the same thing. I began to put myself in his shoes. If I were the one, how would I feel? That is why I have taken it upon myself to ensure that whatever we can do we will do it to make him walk again,” he promised.
In the beginning
Tracing the genesis of his present ordeal, Ezekwe said: “It was when I was searching for another house after my wedding, having been duped by shylock landlords that I began to feel like I had malaria. So I went to Jema Hospital at Wilmer bus stop (in Ajegunle). After the test, the doctor started treatment but there was no iota of improvement.”
Strange dimension
He said he felt uncomfortable when after weeks of treatment there was no improvement and he began to feel a sharp object piercing through the sole of his left leg, when actually there was no physical injury on close examination.
“At a point I felt like a sharp object had pierced through the sole of my left leg but when I looked at it, I discovered that there was no wound there.
“It was at this point that my brother became apprehensive and decided to take me to another hospital.”
He was moved to Havana Hospital in Surulere. And by this time, it was becoming practically impossible for the then energetic businessman to walk. After series of tests, the result showed that he fell down and had bruises inside his knee.
“When I was told the outcome of the test, I told them I didn’t fall down anywhere. At this point, it was becoming very difficult for me to walk. Drugs were prescribed for me and I started taking them but there was still no improvement.
“On one of my visits, I met another doctor who doubted if the drugs I was taking would have any effect since the ones I had been taking have not had any positive impact. He suggested that I go home to pray hard for God’s intervention as the only solution.”
Journey to the village
Having left the hospital, there was mélange of suggestions from various quarters as to the next step. His parents later took him to his mother’s church in their village.
“I stayed in my mother’s church between 2003 and 2004. After the prayers, I could struggle to bathe myself but then I would spend like one and a half hours. That is on a good day otherwise the average time is two hours.
“To rub soap and sprinkle water on my body was a tug of war because I could not stretch my hands as you can see; somewhere within my elbows cannot stretch. It is very painful.
“That is how I have been living in pain and sorrow every day and night till today,” he lamented.
In-laws’ intervention
A new twist was introduced last year when his brother-in-law, Pastor Joshua took him back to hospital for a fresh test. At the All Souls’ Clinic, Marina-Lagos, he was diagnosed with neuropathic joint and was advised that only knee replacement surgery would solve his problem. “My brother-in-law suggested we try hospital again. I was not keen initially but he persisted and on December 11, 2010, he took me to hospital. After series of tests and x-ray, they invited their consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who said my problem was neuropathic joint and that only kneecap replacement would end my woes,” he stated.
Plea
Ezekwe, who said he and his wife have been surviving on financial aids from friends and relatives, is appealing to well-meaning and philanthropic Nigerians to help him to raise N5million required for the operation and its expenses.
He has decided to go to India when the money is available instead of Lagoon Hospital due to wise counsel from the consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital.
“I was advised to go to India where I would have a lot of choices to make, unlike in Lagoon where I would have to wait until about two or three other people with similar case would come before a consultant surgeon would be invited to perform the operation. The operation on one of the legs would take six hours. But if I go to India, many experts would handle it instead of one person. But now I don’t have a kobo in my account as this condition has exhausted all my savings and that of my family. I am appealing to Nigerians to save me from this agony, so that I can come back to life,” he pleaded.
His wife and expectant baby
He commended his wife’s dogged spirit but lamented his inability to make her pregnant all these years.
“She had stood by me all along. She was working in a supermarket at Jibowu but she was fired on a day she went late to work because she was attending to me. “After explaining that it was her effort to tidy things up for her sick husband that made her late, her boss just told her to go home and tend to her husband and that was how she lost her job.
And since then, she has been by my side. “Physically, she has not complained to me but you know every woman would want to have children. I know it has been weighing her down but she is holding on to God believing that I will one day regain my health to be able to perform my marital duty. She has been understanding and has been there for me,” he said.
To assist Ezekwe kindly use the information below:
Name: Cyriacus C. Ezekwe
Bank: Diamond Bank
Account: 0831060024203
Phone No: 234-8027256950, 8182614708
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