After The Fire Comes My Cry For Help

On the 21st of April, 2021, I got up from an afternoon nap and decided to boil some rice for my dinner. I had a small 6kg cylinder, which was sitting in a corner of my room, and this was what I was going to use to cook. I must point out that at this time, I had been in the room for hours, including the time I spent having a nap, and in all this time, I do not remember perceiving any untoward odour, say, of gas from a leaking cylinder.

So there was really no way I could expect what happened next.

I washed the rice, put it in a pot, and set it on the cylinder. I then got a match and tried to set a flame.

This was when the cylinder exploded in my face. In a matter of seconds, I was lying on the floor, dazed, watching as flames began to eat at the ceiling boards in the room, my clothes, my books, my certificates. Everything I owned was in that room, and I could only watch them burn.

Unfortunately, those were not the only things on fire.

Lying there as I was, right at the source of the fire, I was also burning. Every exposed inch of skin on my body—my arms, legs, and even my face, was on fire. The flames melted my glasses, which then burnt my ears and left their mark around my eyes.

I was caught up in this situation for 30 minutes, until my neighbours, drawn by the noise and smoke, barged into the room and carried me to safety.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of a long ordeal, one that has stretched to this day. I was rushed to the Oyo General Hospital that evening, where I received emergency treatment before being transferred to Bowen University Teaching Hospital in Ogbomosho. I spent a total of three weeks there before being discharged. And for a while, I seemed to be on the mend after this; I was able to spend a few weeks under home care.

My legs after my first hospital stay

I thought this was the end of my problems, but there was more to come. After a few weeks, it became obvious that the wounds on my legs were not healing, so I was rushed back to the hospital. I was taken to the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, where the doctors revealed that I would have to undergo a skin graft which would cover up the wounds on my legs. Initially, I had tried to get a skin donor, but the doctors, for fear of complications, decided that it would be better if the skin for the graft was sourced from other parts of my body.

My legs before the skin graft surgery

The surgery has been done, and I am currently still in the hospital, being monitored.

But this brings me to the reason for my appeal. The bills for the surgery and everything else amounts to a total sum of two million naira (N2, 000,000). All available funds have been exhausted on my earlier hospital visits, and now I desperately need your help to clear this bill. This sum will cover the hospital and surgical bills; I will have the renovation of my landlord’s burnt house to worry about later.

Anybody touched to help out a fellow community member may make donations via the donate link by clicking HERE.

Thank you all so very much.

Written by IK