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The family of a University of Nairobi student battling cancer in India has asked Kenyans to help bring him back home after a series of unsuccessful surgeries to remove a tumor in his brain.
Mr Evans Ouma, the father of Emmanuel Otieno, alias Jadudi, and the Africa Cancer Foundation (AFC) yesterday appealed to the nation – that helped raise funds for his trips to India – to help clear a Sh1.2 million hospital bill, ferry him home and support his palliative care. Mr Ouma told a news conference that following a third unsuccessful surgery, Jadudi had been in and out of intensive care unit, attracting hospitals bills of nearly Sh1.2 million.
He said, however, that doctors at the Apollo Entrepreneur Hospital are confident that Jadudi could be able travel on Monday next week after completing an antibiotic therapy.
“We have exhausted the Sh6.4 million raised by Kenyans in 2015 and new bills are overwhelming. Doctors have said they can stabilise him by Monday to enable him travel and we are appealing to well-wishers to help us bring him home so that he can continue with medical and nursing care here at home,” said Ouma.
Ouma said following the third surgery in India since 2015 and the seventh since he developed the tumor in 2012, Jadudi had developed a “severe” infection whose management alone costs hundreds of thousands of shillings. The AFC, which has been contributing funds towards his treatment, projected that it would cost anything between Sh3 million and Sh5 million to settle the bills, bring him home and enable him access good care at cancer facilities in the country.
AFC managing director Dorothy Nyong’o said although the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has helped meet Jadudi’s treatment costs, the recurring condition and subsequent infections as well as travel and special nutrition costs pushed up the bill.
“The money raised has over the years been spent on travel to India, including travel insurance for the two, accommodation and upkeep, medical insurance, medication, speech and physiotherapy, nutrition and supplements,” Ms Nyong’o said in a statement.
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