- Needs N2million to walk again
From Petrus Obi, Enugu
In the time past, Emmanuel Nduchey, an engineer and craftsman, was the breadwinner of his family. He was equally lending a helping hand to those around him who were in need.
But his life suddenly tumbled when he was struck with a strange ailment that made him to be bedridden for over two decades now. Ever since, life has become drudgery and agonizing for him as his wife joined his other relations to abandon him to his fate.
Daily Sun visited him at his Abakpa Nike, Enugu State residence, his story:
“It has been over 20 years now that I do not walk, but before I was bedridden and used to walk at a very slow pace. But now I cannot walk again. I am now in hopelessness because there is no place that I have never been to in order to find a cure but all to no avail.
“I went to the Orthopedic, Eastern Nigeria Medical Centre, Nigercem Hospital, Nkalagu, in those days and even UNTH Enugu, but nobody found what was wrong with me and I was left in this hopelessness.
“My relations and well-wishers have all abandoned me and gave up hope that I will be fine again. My wife that I got married to, who agreed to live with me, but in 2012, she left me and ran away and left the children for me who are all under-aged. They have all dropped from school and are now pure-water hawkers and bus conductors.
“The wife of my landlord once came and threw all our property outside. If you look outside you will see all my chairs that were broken in the process because I was owing house rent. It was only the landlord’s brother that asked me to stay, but he is now dead and the landlord’s wife came and started tormenting me.
“But my happiness is that cold was penetrating through my ceiling into my house and I had pneumonia. It was then that I was taken to the hospital called Life Guardian owned by Dr. Morgan.
“In the cause of treating me, there was a machine he came back with from overseas (because he studied and worked there) which he used to run a test all over my body. He old me that there are some nerves that are not properly in place in my body and the nerve is in charge of movement to my limbs and are blocked and he said he will heal me.
“I was surprised and my hope got restored. But I do not have money because the money required was too much. But with the little we contributed, he started giving me treatment. My hands and my legs started gushing out pus.
“Along the line when the thing became too much, he told me that there is a machine which they are going to use on me, but they do not have it and that it is not in the country. He called hospitals in London and the United States where I need to go.
“Those are the places where they have those machines. He said I will be healed within a short period and will be able to walk without any hindrance. When he came at first I couldn’t move my hands very well but then I could move them well. But later, the seizure started again and I can hardly move my hands or legs again. So that is the situation.”
Nduchey spoke further in this encounter. Excerpts:
What specifically were you doing before this problem?
I worked at CON Associates Consulting, at Chime Avenue, Enugu but the manager is dead now. I also worked at R.O Nkwocha and Allied Electronics. Under Allied Electronics, I was part of the team that did all the electrical connections at First Bank Enugu here. Then I was very prominent at SGEN, a high way construction company; we constructed the Enugu-Abakaliki Express road, which was under my supervision.
I was the one that created that dyke along new haven railway line. I was the one that brought that borrow pit and created that naira triangle and that artificial hill because that hill was never there before. Because those who worked there did aerial survey but when we got there, it had a sharp cut along the railway line because that place is a deep low land and the other place a high low land, the rail demarcated them.
There was no way you can connect the two maps from the hill to the marsh. Even the white contractors rejected the job and said that their money should be increased and the Federal Government increased it before they started work. It was sand that I used in creating that hill along Abakaliki Expressway. That was how we created the hill.
How did it start?
I can’t really say how it started. When I was working at SAMEC as a supervisor in Aba, we were constructing the Aba township water scheme. I think that was on June 25, 1979, when they were introducing new pipes under the rail line. We had finished doing this successfully and pouring the concrete, then suddenly somebody vibrated a compactor on the surface of the ground, then the whole land capsized and buried all of us inside there because the soil was porous.
We were 12 feet deep on the ground together with four other workers. But as God would have it when the force was coming, I jumped up but I was unfortunate and got hit against the wall. Meanwhile, those beneath the ground were suffocating already. Those on the surface started excavating the ground in order to rescue us, but my three other colleagues on the ground died at the spot.
I was the only one who survived. But I was trapped because the rain boot I was putting on was filled with soil and I was forcefully pulled out together with the excavator that pressed me against the wall. In that process, I felt pains in my spine, from my head to my waist. They used chain and crane to pull me out from the soil.
I wouldn’t know if that was the after effect that caused my sickness. I can no longer keep silent because I am dying of cold and hunger here. All my children have dropped from school. I have no relation, No friend, and nobody at all. All my property destroyed.
You said you have nobody, what happened to your immediate family?
I am from Isuochi in Abia State. When I was healthy, I was the type that would also give them money. I had a Range Rover, 504 GL and 504 SR and I had about six 504 pickup trucks my workers used. I had three 911 tippers, I had two block molding machines that produced blocks in large quantities within a short time, I had about six dumpers.
I am not the only child, but I have nobody. I have not seen anybody for a long time. My people were helping me before but now they have grown weary and tired, especially when I was living with a blink hope that I will not get better again. But now that I have something to do to get better, I don’t know anybody again. I have been dumped in the house, before I used to come out but now, not anymore.
How long have you been under this condition?
I moved in here since 2012, I have not been able to get out of this bed sitting up. Before now, I had lived at GRA Emene. When I was at Emene, people still had my contact, address there and still looked for me. But now, nobody knows where I am. Even the late Senator Chukwumrije when he was alive, I saw him on facebook and linked him and he told me that he did not believe I am the one.
“I told him that I was the one. He told me to prove it by telling him the name of my parents and I told him, reminding him that we had lived together before and I was the one he normally called his fourth son.
We had lived before at Ikot Ekpene, I gave him the address. He called me Emma and I answered and he told me that somebody had told him that I died in 1981. He said okay, that he was going to do something about it. The next thing I heard was that he was dead.
How old are you?
I am 58 years old
When did you get married?
In 1997
Why did your wife leave you?
She was having partial stroke, her right hand could not move freely and one of her legs too. She came to me when my sister sent her to bring food for me, I saw her and I have seen her before in my dream. I started looking at her and she was also doing the same thing.
She told me that she knew me from somewhere before, but I knew we had never met before and that was our first meeting. We prayed. She started coming to my place then and started telling me her problems. I had some money then. I was still having one of my 505 Evolution cars. I sold it to raise money to heal her, feed and also take care of myself.
Because she was young and her sickness hadn’t penetrated her body system much, she got healed and decided to stay when that happened. But her people didn’t accept that I should marry her. But then she had given birth to my children – three boys and two girls.
When the pressure was too much, she decided to leave. I trained her in the university, and gave her a job at NEPA then so that we could have sustenance. But since she left and even left the job that was when I knew how difficult life was. This is the report form Dr. Morgan who continuously said that I would be fine and that he should be called anytime we are ready.
Where did he refer you to now?
He said one hospital in Chicago, USA and another one in London, UK would perform the surgery.
What is the bill like?
He said we should have $35,000 and air ticket for two people; one person who is going to take care of me over there. The money should be about N10 to N12 million. He said if we get the money, we should call him that he is ready to assist me to any level. I have never seen the doctors that can perform the surgery. I have been to many places and seen Neurologists, but he said they do not understand what is wrong with me.
What’s your appeal to the public?
My plea is for them to help me to live again and save my life. I want be able to take care of my children that God gave me. I know there are many other people who need help, but if I am well, I will also be able to help others in need. I have always been helping people all my life. I will contribute my own quota because it is important to me. God said that we should ask and we will receive. God will bless everybody who comes to my aid.
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