Man with heart disease needs N10m for surgery

Man with heart disease needs N10m for surgery

By Our Reporter  on October 30, 2015   National

By Vivian Onyebukwa
“Sometime in December 2014, I went to have my bath and I noticed that I was becoming weak and dizzy. After a while, I collapsed and fell down in the bathroom. That time, I was alone because my family went on vacation. So I struggled to get up, put on my clothes and headed for the hospital. That was the beginning of my trouble,” Andrew Mmarkwe, who is currently battling a heart disease, told Daily Sun.
 Since after this incident, Andrew Mmarkwe, has not regained his health. It has been from one hospital to the other. When he got to the hospital the first day, medical experts conducted three different types of medical tests on him. He was subsequently told that there was nothing unusual, so he went home. But his situation did not improve.
 Two days later, he was back again to the hospital as a result of general weakness of the body, tiredness and loss of appetite. On this occasion, he was admitted in the hospital, and further tests were conducted. About eight different kinds of medical tests were conducted on him, including tests on the liver, kidney function, urine, stool, blood pressure, blood sugar and blood glucose. He was again told that all the results were within range and that there was no cause for alarm.
“I kept going back and forth for about three months, and they were giving me different kinds of drugs which appeared to be managing those complaints, but I wasn’t significantly improving,” she said.
 It was at this point that Andrew, a graduate of English and Literary Studies from the University of Calabar, decided to go to another hospital to have a second opinion. There, they did further medical tests, about eight, and he was told again that there was nothing adverse that they noticed. It was at that point that the management of the company where Andrew works intervened, since he had been away from work for four months.
“My company arranged that further medical test be carried out by yet another hospital. So the tests were done and they came up with a confirmation that there was an unusual thing about the heart,” he said.
 However, the hospital didn’t have a cardiologist in-house, so they couldn’t proceed with the management of the case. So, Andrew was referred to yet another hospital. He said at the hospital he was stabilized for just one night.
“The doctors told me that their hospital was not equipped to handle such crises. So I stayed there for a night. By the next morning, my office again intervened by quickly conveying me to another hospital on the Lagos Island where I spent two nights, at the end of which they only tried to make me stable. After two nights, the doctors said they couldn’t proceed as well because they didn’t have a cardiologist. I was eventually referred to a hospital with a cardiologist where further tests were carried out and I was eventually diagnosed of a heart condition known as cardiomyopathy. In a layman’s term, it means an enlarged heart that is inefficient and ineffective in pumping blood to the system.”
As a result of this, Andrew said he has been experiencing swollen feet, breathlessness and tiredness. “I can’t eat or drink water because if I do, my feet and stomach will swell up. I am generally weak and restless,” he lamented.
 According to experts, this situation is life-threatening because since the heart is not working well, it is putting more pressure on the other organs. It was at this point that he was advised to go for a heart surgery abroad.
“As it is, the consultant physician that is currently managing my case has advised an urgent surgery of the heart so as to correct the weak valves. On communication from the hospital overseas, an approximate sum of N10 million will help conduct the surgery. So I humbly appeal to good spirited individuals, corporate organisations, state governments and groups  to please come to my aid. They should not let me die. I have spent all that I have trying to cure this illness,” he stated.
 Those wishing to assist Andrew may reach him on 07088326320 and 08077241792.