Nigerian boy's hearing restored at medical mission

Posted: December 27, 2006   By: Staci Dennis

KWALI, Nigeria - A small bead and a game that went too far left 5-year-old Timothy in jeopardy of losing his hearing and living in pain for the rest of his life.

While playing with some friends, one of them forced a bead into his left ear, lodging it beyond the point of retrieval.

Timothy ran home, screaming in pain, hoping his parents could remove it. But the bead was too far imbedded in his inner ear for anyone but a doctor to offer aid.

"We had no money to take him to the hospital to have it removed," his mother said. "He was in severe pain and in danger of becoming deaf."

Timothy found hope at a medical mission near his home offered by Operation Blessing Nigeria. The family visited the free medical event where an ENT physician (ear, nose, throat) was able to remove the bead before it caused any permanent damage.

"The bead had been a great source of worry to the family," Timothy's mother said. "Thank you for helping to remove this bead from my son's ear."

The OBI medical mission was a joint effort with the Kwali Area Council Clinic, the government's basic health care facility that provides primary services for the community. The head of the health department of the Area Council, Dr. Musa Otaru, was on hand to help coordinate logistics.

"We are very grateful to OBI for coming to our area with free medicine and water," said Secretary of the Area Council, Isaac Babai.

Kwali is an agrarian community with an estimated population of 30,000, most of whom are poor, illiterate farmers. Despite the fact there is a new government hospital in the area, the high cost of medical care keeps many from being able to access basic healthcare services.

In addition to removing the bead from Timothy's ear, the three-day medical mission treated more than 1,300 people, distributed free reading glasses to 319 people and performed more than 120 surgeries.

More than 60 volunteers helped make the medical mission a success including 10 doctors, 15 nurses, four lab technicians, two pharmacists and three assistants. There were also 26 people volunteering their counseling services.

"The people were overjoyed to receive free medical attention, medicine and reading glasses," said Okey Onwudiwe, information officer with OBI Nigeria. "It was a very successful event."