Baby Battles with Spinal Tumor; Family Can’t Raise GH¢10,000 for Surgery

Have you ever groaned in excruciating pain over an ailment which may not easily be tamed with a simple drug or pain reliever? How many sleepless nights and days can you endure, lying on one side of your body?

This is the ordeal of 10-month old (Kofi Newland), who is battling with Myelomenigocele, a birth defect that occurs when the spinal cord fails to develop properly.

Little Kofi was born in June 2017, to Christine Dzitornu and Simon Adzika, both residents of Penyi, in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region.

But the happy news of a safe delivery suddenly turned sour when the health professionals noticed a tumor on little Kofi’s spine.

According to Mac Thompson Gbeti, the Manager of a local clinic, Ghana Mission Clinic in Dzodze, the baby was referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra where a medical team led by Dr. A. Ampadu, diagnosed him of the Myelomeningocele or spinal bifida.

A surgery worth GHc 10,000 is to be carried on Newlove Kofi to ensure his survival.

Sadly, the parents, whose less than a dollar daily earnings could not foot the bill for treatment, withdrew little Kofi from the clinic to seek divine healing.

Meanwhile, the boy’s condition continues to deteriorate as the days go by. A ball-like tumor is beginning to protrude from around his lower part of his back. It causes severe body pains and skin rashes and gives little Kofi painful sleepless nights.

As a result of the tumor, Kofi cannot lie on his back; he sleeps on one side of the body.

His mother, Christine, whose eyes tear up anytime she looks at her only son, says they have become helpless after spending on they have to keep him till now.

“He was like this when I gave birth to him. We roamed in all hospitals including Korle-Bu. Korle Bu has agreed to conduct a surgery on him, but we have spent so much already that we cannot afford the bills in Korle Bu. We are pleading with the public to help us fund the surgery. When I see him in this condition, I feel so sad but there is nothing I can do. The nurses here keep assuring us that things would be fine,” she lamented.

For the past 10 months, Newlove Kofi has battled this strange illness; unable to eat, sleep or develop like any other baby.

He can only wail away his pains. He still has a shot at life, but not unless the tumor is operated on, and the condition treated.

Unfortunately, his poor parents have reached rock bottom.  Hope, faith and prayer, are their last strength.