Scovia Adyero,26, a local farmer and brewer in the rural Otwee Town Council told URN in an interview on Wednesday that her daughter Angel Ayubu was in 2018 diagnosed with severe Rheumatic Heart and Mitral Valve diseases from the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala.
A desperate widow in Amuru district is struggling to raise six million shillings to facilitate her eight-year-old daughter`s heart surgery at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in India due this month.
Scovia Adyero,26, a local farmer and brewer in the rural Otwee Town Council told URN in an interview on Wednesday that her daughter Angel Ayubu was in 2018 diagnosed with severe Rheumatic Heart and Mitral Valve diseases from the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala.
Prior to that, Adyero had been in and out of the different hospitals including St Mary`s Hospital Lacor and Gulu Regional Referral Hospital since 2014 when her daughter developed signs and symptoms of the disease.
//Cue in: ‘’oere I mwaka…Cue out: …adugu kede gang.’’//
Medics at both Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and St Mary`s Hospital Lacor in Gulu City referred Adyero`s daughter to the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala for further management in 2020.
Doctors at the Uganda Heart Institute further recommended a heart operation for Ayubu for Ayubu`s condition noting that they cannot manage it from the country.
Luckily enough, the Uganda Heart Institute however connected Adyero and Ayubu to the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery that have since agreed to freely conduct the heart operation in September this year, according to the medical documents seen by URN.
Adyero who lost her husband in 2018 and is single-handedly mothering her two children says she is required to raise at least six million shillings to transport them to Kampala, acquire a passport to India, feed them as well as upkeep but she has completely failed.
She says herself, well-wishers and family members have only been able to raise one million shillings since last year when they got the offer.
Adyero who is now appealing for assistance told URN that she is worried that she may lose the offer if she fails to travel on-time due to the financial shortfall and as well lose her daughter as medics have recommended for an expeditious heart surgery this month before the condition gets out of hand.
Angel Ayubu told URN that she experiences a lot of body pains, swelling, difficulties in breathing and movement as well as experiencing mucus discharge from her body openings, a condition medics have linked to the heart complications.
//Cue in: ‘’ci dong watye…Cue out: …guvu ne peke.’’//
Ayubu`s condition is being managed by antibiotic and painkiller drugs but Doctor Giovanni Masoero from the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in April this year recommended that the teenager undergo a heart surgery following an electrocardiogram scan carried out on her.
Adyero says in case of assistance and support from well-wishers, she can be reached on her direct phone number +256-781-041-001 registered in the names of Adyero Scovia.
Rheumatic heart disease is a condition in which the heart valves have been permanently damaged by rheumatic fever.
The heart valve damage may start shortly after untreated or under-treated streptococcal infection such as strep throat or scarlet fever.
An immune response causes an inflammatory condition in the body which can result in valve damage. Its treatment depends in large part on how much damage has been done to the heart valves.
In severe cases, treatment may include surgery to replace or repair a badly damaged valves.
Emmy Daniel Ojara
Freelancer