An auditor with the Lagos State Treasury Office, Salawu Biliaminu requires N5 million for a hip surgery.
Biliaminu, 37, who hails from Oyo State, said he began work about seven months ago, and cannot pay for the surgery at Apollo Spectrum Hospital in India.
He said he has had a sore on his left hip since he was 12. He said he had been to several hospitals and traditional homes and spent over N1 million since the problem began.
Biliaminu is on admission at the Igando General Hospital. He is on pain relieving drugs and injections. He said doctors told him that the only solution was the surgery while he continues with the drugs and injections till he gets money for the operation.
He said: “This problem started when I was about 12. One day I felt some strange movement around my left hip, I complained to my parents, but they believed I fell down while I was playing football and I did not tell them. I was taken to those local people that massage leg to straighten it, but the hip later started deteriorating, it was swollen, it burst and it became a wound. About four months later, the hip was healed and I felt no pain again.
“But around March or April in 2010, I woke up one day, I was limping and within the next three days, I could not walk again. I was taken to a private hospital and spent about a month there but there were no changes. I was given injection which costs N5000 daily. People later told me that it was spiritual attack, so I was taken out of Lagos to a traditional doctor in Ogun State. I was there for about a month but there were still no changes. I was also taken to different traditional homes including one in Oyo State. With the treatment in Oyo State, I was able to get back to my feet, but the hip had deformed, I was using crutches.
“In 2015, I went to Isolo General Hospital because I sometimes felt something was wrong with the hip, I knew that was not how I should be feeling. The doctor asked me to take x-ray and I was referred to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbogbi, Lagos, where I met many consultants and I was given drugs. After many consultations, a doctor told me that I needed surgery which he said would then cost me about N2 million. I did not have any means of getting the money at that time, so I didn’t take it serious.
“In April 2018, I woke up one day, felt a severe pain and I could not walk; the pain will come and go. I used drugs to suppress the pain. I went to the staff clinic where I work, they took the x-ray and said I should take a serious step on the hip as it was more complicated. I was given a referral letter to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). But because they were on strike, I could not get admitted there. I was admitted at Igando General Hospital on May 21, where I was told the only solution was for me to undergo surgery. In every two weeks, I spend about N20,000 on drugs and injections. The doctors told me that there is an infection inside the bone and that is what they are currently working on.
“I have contacted some consultants in India and I would need about N5 million which includes the money for the surgery, visa, ticket, accommodation and feeding among other things.”
Biliaminu’s childhood friend, Badmus Yusuf, said that they were soliciting for funds to enable him to do the surgery.
Donations can be sent to Salawu Biliaminu Biola; GTB account number 0016970312. He can be reached on 08026402201 or 08103198789.