A couple with five children was recently
blessed with a set of triplets. The couple, now with eight kids – five
boys and three girls – never envisaged going that far in child bearing.
But since circumstance had made it so, Mr. & Mrs. Ifeani Benjamin
Amadu, from Ukpo in Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State,
have no option but to accept their fate.Mrs. Amadu told our
correspondent that three months into her pregnancy, she had gone for
scan only to be told that she was carrying three babies in her womb, a
revelation that threw her into fright.
Soon after she was delivered of the babies
at Ajeromi General Hospital, Ajegunle, Lagos, on Saturday, October 27,
2014, the woman and her husband found themselves in a tight corner. They
had no money to offset their hospital bills, which stood at N150, 000.
Mrs. Amadu, while narrating her experiences
during and after her pregnancy, pointed out that it was a serious
battle. “The pregnancy was not business as usual,” she began. “At a
point, my whole body became too heavy that I could not do even very
common things. I could neither sleep well nor walk freely. Also, bending
and bathing were tough for me. In fact, it was as if I was carrying
excess load.”
She told Daily Sun, however, that
all the problems disappeared immediately after she was delivered of the
babies. People kept trooping to the hospital to see the bundles of joy.
It was discovered that the triplets were the first to be delivered in
the hospital this year.
Though she had a safe delivery and her
triplets were in sound health, paying her hospital bills and taking care
of the triplets have become a daunting task. Following failure of the
couple to foot their hospital bill more than two weeks after delivery,
the triplets and their mother could not be discharged.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Amadu, a National
Certificate of Education (NCE) holder and a teacher in a private school
earns a very lean salary. Her income and that of her husband are nowhere
enough for them to cater for the delivery. “I could not save enough for
this delivery because my salary is poor,” she said. “I tried to get a
job in a public school as a teacher, but none came my way. So I decided
to manage with the one that I have right now. My husband too planned as
much as he could for the task ahead, but we never knew that things would
work out this way. Unfortunately, earlier before my delivery, robbers
visited us and carted away some money that my husband had planned to
invest in a little business. So, that is why we have found ourselves in
this tensed situation.”
Mrs. Amadu wants financial support from men
and women of goodwill who she believes would have a share in the
special blessings being brought by the triplets. “At the moment, we
cannot pay the hospital bill due to our severe financial constraints. We
are therefore calling on men and women of goodwill like Governors Wille
Obiano, Rochas Okorocha, Babatunde Raji Fashola, corporate bodies and
other groups and individuals to come to our aid so that we can leave the
hospital. I am tired of staying here; I want to go home with my
babies,” she said.
Her husband, Mr. Ifeani Amadu, also
expressed his feelings. “We have been married for 14 years, and since
that time, my wife has been fruitful. In fact, we had closed child
bearing after four children. But the pregnancies continued to come.
After having five children, we never planned having another, yet the
sixth came. As a child of God, I have been feeling so bad to encourage
abortion or family planning. But now, we have been forced to do it.”
He believed that the triplets would serve
as a point of contact for others. He described the situation, as a
serious one and called on Nigerians to come to the rescue of his family.
“I have been thinking about how to get out of this situation. My wife
and the triplets have spent close to three weeks in the hospital because
I have no money to pay their bill. I am appealing to those who are
touched by what my family is going through to assist us financially so
that we could pay the hospital bill and cater for the babies too.
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