Medical attention
Her worry stemmed from the sudden, unusual bulging of her stomach. She and her husband, Titus decided to seek medical advice. Like in a normal pregnancy, her monthly period ceased and she began having early morning sickness, fatigue, cravings and distaste for some food.
She even registered for antenatal care but the result of her pregnancy test shocked her and the medical officers handling the case. Series of scan tests in different general hospitals in Lagos didn’t show the presence of any foetus. But her stomach strangely kept enlarging and bulging as though she was laden with quadruplet.
Going spiritual
When her condition seemed to defy medical diagnosis, the Olotus decided to go spiritual. “We began going from one church to another. There is no prayer house that we didn’t go to in this Lagos. Most times, they told me to bring my wrapper for prayers and burning. I lost all my expensive wrappers and blouses. Yet, nothing changed”, Mrs. Olotu said.
Worsening condition
From 2003 until recently, she oscillated between the hospital and church. But her stomach continued to bulge unabated. It got to a point that she couldn’t move, get up or lie down without help. Simple functions like going to the toilet, kitchen or even preparing meals for her family failed her.
“For years, I just sat almost in one place and did nothing. I couldn’t sleep. So, my radio was always on. I got to know all the radio stations and the voices of all the radio presenters. When people leave the house, I’m always the only one at home. I just was there waiting and dying slowly, she said, sobbing.
Dwindling fortunes
When she was on her feet, Mrs. Olotu used to move around bakeries and shops in her Igando, Lagos neighbourhood with a van. She used to supply bread to shops around. The once fair, restless, tireless woman used to supply different brands of bread to notable supermarkets and shops there. She also did petty trading and made some money. Her husband, Titus, a fashion designer, had a shop at Festac Town and was quite popular, and comfortably. His wife’s sickness ruined everything. It drained all that the family had. The family businesses and means of livelihood crumbled.
The family began selling household items and furniture, television sets, fans, refrigerators and so on. Their children stopped going to school because the family couldn’t pay their school fees in the private schools they were attending. As the family income nosedived, diminished and eventually dried up, they packed from their three-bedroom apartment and moved to a two-room apartment at 4, Akodu Ibrahim Street, Akesan, Igando, Lagos.
Their new accommodation is owned by their first landlord whom Mrs. Olotu described as a good, God-fearing man. To prove her claim, she told Sunday Sun that their “rent is overdue but the man doesn’t bother us. When my husband went to pay him one month rent, he refused to collect it. He said he was more concerned with the children going to school. He told us to use the money to pay for my children’s school fees. The man is not like the typical Lagos landlord.” she said.
Suicide option
Her sickness took a huge toll on her family and friends. She even traveled to her hometown in Ondo State, for traditional medical treatment. Worried by her condition, her father died.
“This sickness killed my father. He tried everything to help me, and when he didn’t see any improvement he died,” she said as tears trickled down her lean face.
Realizing that people around her were suffering too much because of her sickness, she began to consider ending it all via suicide. But her brave, loving husband got an inkling of what she was contemplating and removed all the sharp objects around the house. She even wanted to drink acid and die but it wasn’t within her reach. I honestly wanted to kill myself. I felt I was giving people too much trouble and that killing myself will help them to move on, she said, twisting her lips with contrition.
Help from radio
About eight months ago, she was listening to the radio when someone mentioned the eficacy of Dr. Shehu Dauda Usani Yakafi, a traditional medicine practitioner’s treatment. She called the radio station and got the doctor’s telephone number. She quickly booked an appointment and went over to the man’s clinic at Yakafi Traditional Medicine, Cure and Maternity Home, 59/55 Matairu Ali Street, Ijegun, Lagos.
Unusual doctor
On the appointed day, the doctor observed that Mrs. Idowu and her husband had difficulty in paying the clinic’s N500 registration and card fee, he breached the hospital’s procedure and registered her free of charge. He even opted to go to the woman’s house and treat her every day. For about eight months, the doctor administered traditional medicine derived from herbs on her.
Strange delivery
Last week Tuesday, January 12, 2010, Mrs. Idowu Olotu delivered three buckets of brown fluid. Speaking through an interpreter, the barely literate traditional medicine practitioner told Sunday Sun that the case was more of spiritual nature than medical.
“Somebody close to her did it to her. She ate in her dream and got it. She was very sick. We made her well before starting the treatment. We made the evil thing she ate to come out through a superior force .
And all these while, the doctor didn’t demand for a kobo. He instead spent and lavished his money, giving her food, drugs,and praying for her. Hear him: “I don’t normally collect money until after treatment. When you register, we treat you until you are well. Mrs. Idowu’s case is not normal. Even now that she’s okay, we can’t ask her to pay. She doesn’t have money. So, why bother her? God says we should save life first. That’s what I have done.”
Doctor of a kind
The Igboora, Oyo State-born tradtional medicine practitioner has no formal Western education and training. He claims herbs talk to him. “When I go to the forest, I tell the beings I meet my mission and the herbs I see and touch talk to me. I take the herbs home and prepare the drugs I give to my patients.
“I have also learned under some masters at Benin Republic, Kogi and so on. I use traditional method to treat and cure people. Prayer helps also. I call on both Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ. Both are prophets of God. Ignorance make people to discriminate. The clinic of the 41-year-old trado-medicine practitioner is always teeming with strange cases of mental illness, pregnancy and so on.
In December, he delivered a young lady of a baby girl and a live tortoise. Asked about that strange birth, he said it was the handiwork of evil people. He has six apprentices. Three of his children are also under his tutelage.
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