A victim of adulterated kerosene explosion , Mrs Elizabeth Benedict Edet has cried out for help, expressing doubt that her letter sent to the wife of Akwa Ibom state governor, Dr. Martha Udom Emmanuel, seeking help may not have reached her.
But the victim and widow who survived the fire incident which damaged her face and parts of her chest region said she had full confidence, judging from antecedents, that the First Lady would have come to her aid if she had seen her letter.
Mrs. Edet who is unable to afford further correctional surgeries on her face and extraction of previous stitches told our Correspondent who visited her home that she had made several appeals to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare.
“During one of such visits, the Commissioner, Dr Ini Adiakpan told me that my case was beyond the ministry, she therefore advised me to write to Her Excellency, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, which I did, through the ministry.
“They said they will call me, but I have not heard from them since then. I am tired. My thinking sometimes is that Her Excellency may not have seen my letters or I just didn’t have anybody to speak for me. But I have heard what she is doing for others. The widow I am, and this condition, how would I be frequenting people’s offices and become a public spectacle?”
Mrs Edet who was battling with excruciating pains while speaking with our Correspondent said her late husband, a retired Staff Sergeant Benedict Edet of Ikot Efum from Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, served the nation at 35 Battalion in Calabar, Cross River State, before returning to his State of origin on voluntary retirement.
He ,however, died following a protracted illness in 2008, leaving her to cater for their six children.
“Following my husband’s death, I had to brace up to the responsibility of singlehandedly catering for my household until the calamity struck in August, 2018 and altered my routine of single parenting.
“I resigned from public service and took to yam selling because the salary was not enough to cater for my family. On that faithful day of the incident, I had just returned to Uyo from Enugu, my regular place of purchase, and needed to prepare a meal for the night.
“Unable to find a gas refill outlet by that time of the night, I opted for kerosene and made for the nearest vendor. Not knowing that the kerosene had been adulterated, I poured the liquid into the stove, lighted a match stick and was, in a split second, devoured by a sudden explosion from the stove. My face and chest were burnt to an unsightly level.
“I was rushed to St. Theresa’s Hospital at Use Abat, where I spent about a month. I was discharged in September but three days later, I noticed some liquid substance coming out of my eyes. I then rushed back to the Hospital and the Doctor there, Dr. Ukut, asked me to pay another money for surgery which I did and he carried out an operation in my eye.
“Unfortunately, the Doctor (Dr. Ukut), who carried out the operation was said to have travelled to Ibadan, before the expiration of 14 days prescribed to monitor the development before the next steps were taken. He thus embarked on the said journey without removing the stitches just on the thin roof of both of my eyes. 8
“After 21 days of the operation, Dr. Ukut was still unavailable to remove the stitches, this led to more excruciating pains that would keep me awake for two straight weeks.
When I could no longer bear the pains made worse by increasing period of sleeplessness, I pleaded with another medical practitioner, one Dr. James, in the same hospital, to help me out but he refused on grounds that he is not an Eye Specialist. He rather referred me to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) for further action.
“At UUTH, I met one Dr. Margaret Antia who booked me for a plastic surgery. Yet, the old stitches were not removed. I was rather asked to go back to St. Theresa Hospital to meet my first Surgeon, but this time, I was told that Dr. Ukut no longer worked there.
“That is how I became stranded. I then went back to the Teaching Hospital the second time but Dr. Margaret had gone on leave. I went to their eye department and they referred me to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH). The excuse was that they did not have the required apparatus.
“At UCTH, only the lower part of my left eye was worked on; the upper part which was my main challenge was again left untouched. The Doctor categorically informed me that he could not remove the threads because he was not the one who performed the original surgery.
“Frustrated, tired, yet in unbearable pains, I returned to UUTH to meet and explain my ordeal to Dr. Margaret; but Dr. Margaret blamed me for going to UCTH, arguing that I should have waited for her to return from her one month leave.
“Nevertheless, Dr Margaret scheduled me for another operation in November, 2020, a cost of which was put at the sum of One hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N150,000).
“I did not have the money as at that time because I had spent so much at Unical. But by the time I was able to raise the required money, the woman (Dr Margaret) had traveled abroad. I have been there severally but told the same thing. I have tried to reach her through the number she gave me but I could not reach her”, She explained in a feeble voice.
Apparently, stranded and left in the dark, the widow has had to live in perpetual pain from the over two year-old surgical threads and burns, while trying frantically to get help from any source at all.
“Since that time, I have been looking for help everywhere. I have gone to Abuja Hospital but could not get help because I do not have the money anymore. I have been forsaken and abandoned even by those I thought were my people”, She concluded, weeping profusely.
Mrs Edet could be reached on 080624333925.
