On behalf of Project Alert on Violence Against Women,
Temitope Oluwagbemi and Aramide Kasunmu, I welcome you all to this press
conference on baby Michael Alvez’s fight with facial haemangioma.
On March 16th, Kate Henshaw rescued very
sick baby Michael and his mother of the streets of Lagoswith the help of two
individuals named Mr. Temitope Oluwagbemi and Ms. Aramide Kasunmu, and got both
mother and child admitted into LUTH. Kate an Ambassador of Project Alert,
immediately called the Executive Director of Project Alert, Mrs. Josephine
Effah-Chukwuma to intimate her on it and request Project Alert’s active involvement
in the case.
On March 18th all parties met at LUTH, and
had a meeting with Dr. Mofikoya, the consultant attending to baby Michael. Michael
was diagnosed with ulcerated, infected facial
haemangioma caused by vascular malfunction, worsened by the fact that night
and day, sun and rain, his mother Mary was on the road with him, begging for
help. Facial haemangioma is a benign condition (non-cancerous). The doctor informed
us then, that Michael would have to be on admission for an initial one month
for further tests to be carried out, and treatment to commence. That
immediately raised the question: ‘’How would Baby Michael’s hospitalization and
medical treatment be funded’’. It was at that point that the RESCUERS (Kate Henshaw, Project Alert, Temitope
and Aramide) commenced a public fund raising to help keep Michael and his
mother in hospital and pay the hospital bills. A dedicated account known as Project Alert. Baby Michael, was opened
for donations.
Same day Baby Michael was admitted in LUTH, the Lagos
State Social Welfare department, was notified. They referred us to the Social
Welfare office in LUTH, headed by Mrs. Funmi Doherty. We had meetings with her
and jointly we commenced work on seeing to the welfare and medical treatment of
baby Michael in LUTH.
We would like to thank members of the public who
donated their widow’s mite to help treat Michael. Your kind donations helped in
paying hospital bills for the three (3) months Michael was on admission in
LUTH, until when we had to take him out on June 20th, when nurses
commenced strike action. Till date the strike is still on. We had to take
Michael to Project Alert Shelter for continued care and close monitoring and
strict adherence to administration of drugs and hospital appointment
WHY DID WE HAVE TO DO THAT
YOU MAY ASK? WHY DIDN’T MICHAEL’s MOTHER, MARY TAKE HIM HOME AND CONTINUE
CARING FOR HIM, APPRECIATIVE OF THE FACT THAT A GROUP OF PEOPLE HAD TAKEN UP
HIS MEDICAL CARE?
This brings us to the concerns we have about the
ability of Mary and her family to care for Michael, and whether it wouldn’t be
best for Michael to be placed in a home. The concerns are as follows:
1.
Mary
since last year had been begging on the streets of Lagos Island with the baby,
claiming to seek financial help to enable her seek treatment for her son. She
was even aired on Television Continental, TVC sometime in Nov/Dec 2015, which
resulted in people donating. One single donation of N450k by a lady stood out.
So how come Mary was still on the street with the child till March 2016 when
Kate Henshaw and Temitope Oluwagbemi saw her? Why wasn’t the baby in hospital?
2.
While
in hospital, we received reports from other mothers in the ward and the nurses
about Mary’s restlessness and aggressiveness to all including her baby. On
April 24th, she fought a hospital maid and threatened to burn down
the ward. Mary is a commercial sex worker and got pregnant with Michael in the
course of work. She felt caged in the hospital. She was sent out of the ward by
the matron and nurses, and we had to beg that she be allowed in, after she
promised to be of good behaviour.
3.
In
same April, we went visiting the home address in Ikorodu that Mary gave us. We
met her aged mother and brothers, all with no visible sign of means of
livelihood. We found out that Mary had 3 other children, and was in the
practice of disappearing from home for months,getting pregnant along the line,
delivering the children and coming back home to dump them with her aged mother,
who has a bad leg.
4.
On the
night of June 9th, she walked out of the hospital, leaving her baby
behind. In the early hours of June 10th, we received a call from the
ward that baby Michael had been abandoned by his mother. Immediately we called
the hospital Social Welfare department and her senior sister Syndi. We gathered
at the hospital and met with Mrs. Doherty, Head Social Welfare, LUTH, where it
was decided that Mary not be allowed back into the ward and the family pleaded
that their mother and a 16 year old niece come stay with Michael in the ward
instead. As the meeting was going on, Mary appeared very dirty and smelling.
5.
On
June 20th, about a week after LUTH nurses had commenced their
strike, we had to go pick Michael and mama from the ward, as all patients had
been discharged and they were the last people remaining. Not wanting a roll
back on the medical gains we had made on Michael’s health, and with a mother
more interested in prostitution, we had to decide to take Michael to Project
Alert shelter, where he still is with mama (his grandmother as his carer). This
has moved our initial mission from only caring for Michael’s medical needs to
feeding and housing Michael, mama and the 16 year old who assists mama in
running around (going to market etc).
The road to full recovery is a long one for baby
Michael. At the last hospital appointment we had with Dr. Mofikoya on Thursday
July 21st, he stated that taking out the
growth through surgery will leave a hole on Michael's face as according to
him,the tissue under the growth is abnormal. He said the tissue is not healthy
and that is why surgery is not a good option at LUTH. The treatment plan he
thus has for Michael is continued administration of the drugsPropanolol
(tablet) and Nylol Gel (cream)for gradual compression and shrinking. But that
according to him, will take a long process.
He used an example of a patient (a boy) he has been treating since the
child was a baby and the child is now 10yrs and they are still on it. He said
that is the treatment they can give Baby Michael in LUTH.
Thus
with this long road to discovery for Michael; a clearly unfit mother; a
grandmother who is not strong enough and capable of caring for Michael; and the
need for good and hygienic management of Michael’s ailment, WHERE SHOULD MICHAEL BE PLACED? WHO SHOULD
CARE FOR MICHAEL? We the RESCUERS
are committed to baby Michael’s medical costs. However the social welfare
issues surrounding his mother, circumstances of birth, and the family in
general are HUGE.
Thank
you and GOD BLESS.
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