A female journalist, Mercy Omoike, has appealed to kindhearted Nigerians, corporate organisations and the three tiers of government for financial assistance for a heart surgery for her nine-week-old baby.
Omoike, who works with the News Agency of Nigeria, said the baby boy, Shalom, was born on October 23, with a heart problem and needs N7.5 million for surgery.
She said the boy was discharged from Bee Hess Hospital, Akowonjo, Lagos, on November 3, 2020, where he was born.
According to her, Shalom was an outpatient for two weeks at the private hospital before he was referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, on November 27.
“He has since been an outpatient at the Paediatric Cardiology Unit of LUTH.
“Shalom has been placed on observation until he is three months old to avoid complications during surgery because of his present age,’’ Omoike said.
She said the boy was born with a symptomatic congenital heart disease confirmed by Echocardiography as Transposition of the Great Arteries, large-sized inlet Ventricular Septal Defect (VSDs) and multiple muscular VSDs.
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust described Transposition of the Great Arteries as “a birth defect of the heart’’.
“It is where the two main arteries carrying blood out of the heart – the main pulmonary artery and the aorta – are switched in position or transposed.
“The aorta is attached to the right-sided pumping chamber (ventricle) instead of the left, and the pulmonary artery is attached to the left-sided pumping chamber (ventricle) instead of the right.
“This means that blood flows to the lungs and picks up oxygen but is pumped back to the lungs instead of travelling around the body. Blood flowing round the body is unable to reach the lungs to pick up oxygen and continues circulating.”
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