Kuwekuzi Aigbe
Members of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) yesterday held a peaceful rally in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital, to raise fund for one of their ailing member.
The member known as Wednesday Timi Tonkumo aka Lemon Black have been suffering from end stage renal disease (kidney failure) and need a kidney transplant.
According to Doctor report, Lemon Black need N20 million for a new kidney transplant and he is surviving right now with three rounds of dialysis each week at the cost of N70,000) per round; a financial burden too heavy for his immediate family to bear.
The scan shows that both kidneys are reduced in size and show an increased cortical echogenicity with lots of corticomedullary differention. There are no renal stone or hydronephrosis, there are no ascites and the liver gall bladder spleen and pancreas are normal.
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In an appeal for support from the Federal Medical Center, Yenagoa, for the 37 years old musician and a civil servant, the hospital agreed that the medical bill which amount to 40,000 US dollars which is too much for an individual to pay alone.
“This is to affirm that the above named patient of this hospital is suffering from end stage renal disease. Survival is dependent on lifelong maintenance dialysis or kidney transplant.
Both modalities of treatment are very expensive and not within the reach of the average patient”, the report reads.
Speaking at the rally which took the PMAN members to the State House House of Assembly and the Government house in Onopa, the Governor of the association, Prince Peres Ogbogbo, said the campaign was to appeal to the government, individual and corporate bodies to help save the victim.
Ogbogbo, said the young man was too young and talented to die now and appealed to the state state government and to the members of the state house of assembly to come to the aid of the victim.
He said, “We are passionately appealing to the civil society, the Government and every meaningful individual to come to the aid of their own by footing the bills for the desperately needed transplant of Lemon Black.
