A Hole-in-Heart boy SWEEPS distinction in all exams but needs help- Mother cries

Wisdom K.E Hammond 5 years ago

Toby Apomuta, who is suffering from a life-threatening condition commonly referred to as “Hole in Heart”, condition came up tops in his class as he swept all subjects. The little boy obtained distinction in all examinations conducted for the term to the admiration of everyone giving his health condition.

The talented boy cried on a one-minute-five-second-long audiotape posted on starrfm.com.gh in April 2019: “My name is Toby. I come from Bolga. I’m four years old. I’m not feeling well. I have a heart problem that affects me. I want to be a doctor in future. My doctor said I need to go through an operation. I can’t play like my friends. I get tired easily. Please, Ghanaians, help me. I don’t want to die.”

“If I don’t support this little boy with the little I have now,” said a concerned roadside bread merchant in Bolgatanga after listening to the appeal tape, “my conscience will not forgive me if he dies young.”

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“This is the time we need you more to save the life of this innocent boy. Please, don’t let him die. I beg you in the name of God,” his distraught mother, Vida, begged the public.

The five-year-old has been battling with the Pulmonary Atresia with Ventricular Septal Defect (“Hole in Heart”), condition and was in school for just 34 days since he spent most of the days at the hospital.

Her plea echoes a very touching appeal Toby himself made four months ago as both the grieving mother and the ailing son wept openly over the dreadful prospect of being ‘cruelly’ separated from each other too soon.

When the term’s exams was taken, no one expected him, Toby Apomuta to pull such an amazing performance at the Plato Academy (Firm Foundation Academy) , a private school he attends in the Upper East regional capital.

He placed 4 in a class of 34 pupils and obtained a raw score of 365 out of 400 in the promotional examination.

Doctors told Starr News in April, this year, he needed an estimated Gh¢100,000 (19,000 U.S. dollars) to undergo two surgeries. About Gh¢60,000 (12,000 U.S dollars) is reported to have been raised “from well-meaning Ghanaians” so far. It was from that amount some Gh¢19,055 (3,500 U.S. dollars) was made available for the first surgery done two months ago at the Providence Specialists Hospital at Achimota in Accra— a facility owned by Ghana’s celebrated heart surgeon, Professor Frimpong Boateng. Roughly Gh¢30,000 or 5,531 U.S. dollars is still needed to add to what is left in the donations bag to carry out the last phase of the surgery doctors say will cost Gh¢50,000 (8,500 U.S. dollars).

Importance of Final Surgery Explained

“The cardiothoracic surgeon said he would [conduct] two operations. The first one, because he’s a child, they’re going to do a surgery which would not correct the defect but it would allow the child to live a normal life up to a point. So, in three months’ time, they would do the definitive repair.

“The first surgery will take him up to a point and, then, he will start deteriorating again if we don’t do the final repair. He’s scheduled for a review in September. After the review, they will schedule him for another surgery. As I speak now we have some money in the account but that won’t be able to take him through the second surgery completely. We need about Gh¢30,000,” Dr Amoako told Starr News on Wednesday.