Nkechi Mmedo , a baby born prematurely at 31 weeks, 3 days gestational age , who was saved by the Enugu state Gov’s wife , Mrs Nkechinyere Mbah’ has been discharged from the newborn Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, after 42 days of life-saving medical admission in the hospital.
The Governor’s wife through her Non-Governmental Organization, the Custos Care Foundation, paid the hospital bill of the baby, who was discharged on March 29, Good Friday.
It was gathered that the Baby was born premature to an indigent family at a gestational age of 31 weeks and three days due to cervical incompetence and without the huge resources to dream of saving the baby, they had already given up on the baby’s survival unless by sheer miracle.
Pix- Mrs Mbah (1s R) at the launching of her NGO
The miracle came the way of baby Nkechi, as Mrs. Mbah came for the launch of the Enugu West Senatorial edition of her Mother and Child Healthcare and Welfare Project at Primary Healthcare Centre, Oji River where she went around to see patients and babies and also interacted with two-day old newborns and their nursing mothers mobilised to the event.
It was during that event at the Health Centre that the governor’s wife took notice of the baby and swung into action, riding with the baby and the mother straight to Enugu to try to salvage the situation through her Custos Care Foundation.
The Governor’s wife, who kept checking on the baby also left an instruction to both the hospital and the medical team of her Foundation to leave no stone unturned and at whatever financial cost, to save the baby’s life
Pix- Gov ‘s wife, Mrs Mbah
Mother of the child, .Mrs Rapuluchukwu Mmedo of Obune Inyi, Oji River LGA, who could not hide her joy , described Mrs. Mbah’s intervention as a miracle, as they had already given up hope.
“For us, we knew the kind of money required to keep our baby in a newborn ICU was certainly out of our reach and something we could not dream of in the first place. But this miracle happened for us through this compassionate and humble woman. She treated us like royalties.
“I’m overjoyed. I’m so grateful to God and our governor’s wife. I thank the hospital and Custos Care Foundation. I’m overjoyed,” she said.
The parents of the baby named her Nkechi, after the Governor’s wife, Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah, following her life-saving intervention
Author: Maureen Ikpeama