The 2019 edition of Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha’s free medical mission in conjunction with a United States-based non-governmental organisation, Living Hope Medical Center, has brought health relief to the people of Isiukwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency in Abia State.
For Hon. Onyejiocha, who represents the constituency at the House of Representatives, funds the outreach every year.
The exercise comes up in June and July, a time of heavy rains, but beneficiaries who come from within and outside Umunneochi/Isiukwuato area, defy the wetness and head to Isuochi, venue of the outreach.
This year’s edition, the only Abia female lawmaker in the 9th National Assembly, brought 41 medical professionals in different medical fields who deployed their expertise to render medical assistance to the people.
To make their job more convenient, Hon. Onyejiocha acquired land where she erected a more conducive structure for the medical team to carry out their operation unlike when they were using a government healthcare centre that could barely accommodate the team members.
The medical doctors took their time to listen to the patients. Nurses checked the blood pressure of patients while pharmacists handed over drugs to patients, and optometrists issued glasses to those in need of them.
The doctors were in various rooms carrying out open corrective surgery on a good number of patients.
Some of the patients who came with tears amidst hopelessness after being examined by the doctors who treated and prescribed drugs for them, left with joy.
Some of them who spoke to our reporter said that they were excited with the level of attention that they received from the medical personnel.
According to them, the month of June and July when the programme usually holds, is a time that they anxiously wait for especially at a time in the country when access to healthcare of such quality is meant for only the rich or privileged members of the society.
In an interview, Onyejiocha said, “The reason for the health mission is that health is wealth. A lot of people here are people who can’t afford medical treatment for themselves and so, as the member representing the area, this is one way of giving back to the people that I represent.
“This is my personal fund. Even before I became a member of House of Reps, I have been doing this. I have done it for over 14 years. It has nothing to do with my position as member of House of Representatives. It has a lot to do with my passion for my people. it has a lot to do with identifying with the need of the people that have kept sending me back to the National Assembly. It is not a constituency project. The building that you are seeing here comes from my personal fund.
“At the start, I was partnering with local doctors. But since I came in contact with Living Hope, they have done much more than what we did in the past. They have done more surgeries than the local doctors have done.
“I am impressed because the quality of service is there, the dedication is there and they are doing more complex surgeries wityh the team of experts that they came with than what the local doctors have been able to do in a two days medical mission. That is why I keep partnering with them after we took off for the first time.
“They know that I do it every June. Some have started booking surgery for next year. I pray that God will keep me alive and healthy so that I will be able to do it much better than what we have this year. I wish I could have more doctors to see everybody. I wish I could have more doctors to see everybody.
“I wish I could have more doctors to go into some areas that they can’t do here because the medical facilities that we have on ground here cannot take care of. My prayer is that maybe in time to come, that God will continue to heal my people so that they don’t need to go through all these and even if they do need, that we will be able to provide the kind of facilities that will be able to take care of them.
“I have sent most of the referrers to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Federal Medical Center (FMC) and other places. I also assure them that I am going to take care of their medical bills. If they had done it here, I am not sure that it will cost me any extra money.
“My constituents know how much that I value their well being and that was why when I moved into APC, they weren’t looking at the party, but the person who is representing them. I am the party that they know.”
On what future plans she has for the medical mission, the former House Committee Chairman on Aviation said “That plan would be, but we have to put a lot of things into consideration. If you take a cursory look at health facilities around the state, one would not help, but try to get it bigger, bring in more equipments, get in more qualified doctors and make it permanent so that even when the expatriates leave, the local doctors will keep doing what they can do and the ones they can’t, they can refer to bigger teaching hospital. That’s the plan, but it depends on how much money that I will be able to save to do that.”
On insinuations that she was doing the medical mission for political reasons, the lawmaker said “I have seen so many people here who didn’t vote for me in the last election because they have their loyalty to other political parties. Apart from members of the APC who are here to either get treated or to render assistance in one way or the other, I have seen members of the PDP, APGA and SDP coming to get screened and attended to by the medical team. Will I tell them to go? I won’t do that. They are members of Isiukwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency that I represent at the Federal House of Representatives and whatever that comes from me to the people should be shared across board.
“Everyone has the right to vote for any person of his or her choice. And I can’t deny him or her opportunity to get treated because the person didn’t vote for me. The people that I represent must be in good health regardless of the political party that they belonged to.
“What political point would I want to score or achieve after my election few months ago? If I want to score political point, shouldn’t I have done this last year at the heat of the campaign period?
“What political point would I want to score after my swearing-in and inauguration? This date was fixed from last year, many people won’t do that. They would have preferred having this kind of programme during the campaign to win the sympathy of would be voters.
“What political point have I been scoring over 13 years ago that I will score today? For me, everything I do has nothing to do with politics. I have tried to remove politics from representation because you can’t be representing people and then, you are politicking with their lives.
“What point would I score that somebody is sick and the person is just waiting for another June to be treated? There is no point here to score.
“Even in my foundation, I made it clear that it is about representing the people. It is about giving back to the people who have worked for us and so, if I want to do politics, I will go to the field and I will put banners.
“If I want to score political point, I would have organized a Press Conference even before takeoff. For me, representation is about a covenant with the people and God. When it comes to politics, we play politics. But I warn politicians, those who come and get votes from people and run away from their responsibilities, that a time will come when no matter how much that they pay, they won’t get the vote because it is about the people who have the passion to represent the people and not how much that you have amassed for yourself.”
On what she feels about her mom’s gesture to the constituents, Chisom Onyejiocha said “I feel that what she is doing is very inspiring. Our people are suffering; our politicians aren’t doing the job that they are supposed to be doing.
“I think that my mum is one of the few people that actually cares about her people. For her to be doing this free medical care every year shows the much that she loves her constituents. People are going through a lot of things and for them to be healthy, the privileged ones should regularly be doing this kind of thing.
“I am happy that the people who are here leave here better than they came, I am however sad because of the crowd here is overwhelming. I am sure that this is not going to end after my mum leaves office as the Isiukwuato/Umunneochi representative. We, the children have to assist her and carry on this medical mission till everyone is able to afford healthcare.”
The leader of the medical team, Dr. Sonny Acho, the founder/President Living Hope Medical Center, said, “The organisation is based in the United States of America and we have been in existence for thirty years. Every year, we embark on medical mission to help our people ease the stress and suffering that they are passing through over the years because of their inability of having access to quality medical healthcare.
“This is the twelfth year of Hon. Nkeiru Onyejiocha partnering with us; Living Hope Mission to help her with her passion and vision. We share the same passion and I have known her for a very long time. When we saw her heart and what she wants to do for her constituents, it was easy for me to persuade my organization to partner with her.
“We did surgeries for hernias to lymphoma to cataract among others. The ophthalmologists are screening people and are giving glasses. We have 41 doctors and nurses and pharmacists among other medical professionals in different medical disciplines that came with me.
“At Isiukwuato, we amputated someone’s leg that is so horrible which if we didn’t do, the guy may not have last for a longtime.
“For thirty years, I have been doing this kind of thing for thirty years. One of the things that we were a big challenge for us is the roads, they are horrible. It is one of the things that frustrate me. if the government can do something to fix them, then it will be easy to access the area.
“To come from Isiukwuato to Isuochi that shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes will take you about two hours and it is frustrating.
“Some of the people are frustrated because they don’t have money to go to the doctor. We are their only hope. That is why you will see them fighting and struggling to go and see the doctor so that their situations can be taken care of.
“If we go and they weren’t attended to, it means that they are going to wait till the next year. People are dying needlessly here. A situation that a visit to the doctor will take care of or a situation that $20 could take care of in the US, you see people dying for it. If you go into the operating room, you will situations that are very horrible.
“We have a lady that has been carrying lymphoma for several years, but it was taken out by her visit to this place. The woman, I am sure may not afford to pay for the surgery elsewhere because the least it could cost her getting the stuff removed should be around N350, 000.
“Cataract that can cost around N180, 000 in average Nigeria hospital were removed in less than twenty-thirty minutes here for free.
”We also discovered that people have suffered a particular health condition for so many years maybe because they don’t where to go or that they know where to go, but don’t have the money to get treated.
“In this area, there are cases of hernias, waist pains and joint aches, malaria and eye related issues are mainly what we have been treating here.
“There are about two huge fibroid cases that if we start getting into it now, it will take about three-four hours to get done with loss of blood. So, we are encouraging them to go to the nearest hospital and see if it could be done. But we know why they run to us, they have tried the hospitals, but the money to do it might be their challenge. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time.
“We noticed that people are struggling with finances; they don’t have the money to go treat themselves. It hurts me to see that I am situations that they could have taken care of but because they don’t have the money to get treated, they have to wait for us to come.
“You see people dying of situations that they could have get tested and treated almost immediately, but because they don’t have the money, they won’t be able to treat such until they come to a medical mission as this and some of them come when the situation may have grown bigger than what a mission like this can take care of.
“What we do when we have such cases is to send the patient to government or private hospital where it could be taken care of and what we do in most cases is to use our personal funds to pay for the person’s medical bills.
“We hope to bring in more specialists in the next edition. Knowing what are dealing with now, we hope to bring more doctors that can handle some of these situations and hopefully, the facility here that Hon. Onyejiocha has put up will become more functional.
“I hope that by next year, the building must have been remodeled to accommodate the type of treatment that we want to cover by next year. we are equally building a state-of-the-art laboratory in Isiukwuato for people to go and investigate before they can be treated.
“The Health Center that we have been using in the past for this medical mission here in Isuochi has been a horrible place to be, but with the current facility that Hon. Onyejiocha has been able to put up, we can have three surgery beds and our target for next year is to have about five surgery beds.
“One of the things that we have also discovered here is that HIV is so high. As we have been doing surgery, we have been so careful because there are lots of sexually transmitted issues in this area.”
