Neonatal Jaundice: How my pikin sickness ginger me to find solution for Nigeria
By: Dooshima Abu Wen Virtue Oboro born her first boy pikin, just two days afta, di boy body come dey turn yellow.
She just see am say na normal tin and dat her pikin na shine shine bobo, until her mother wey be nurse check di pikin come tell her say e no normal. By di time she reach hospital, di doctors come tell am say di pikin get jaundice and di tin don eat deep and so dem need sharperly start to dey treat di pikin. But di unfortunate tin be say, di phototherapy unit wey dem suppose cari treat di pikin no dey ground and di one wey dey, anoda pikin dey use am. “My heart just break yakata and I start to cry as I see my pikin dey suffer. As I read about jaundice I discover say e dey cause cerebral palsy, brain damage , deafness, blindness and death.” But las las wen her pikin come get chance to enta one of di machine na so NEPA come cari light and di hospital no get generator or any inverter to power di machine. “Na 60 to 70 percent of pikin dem dey suffer from jaundice and di machine to treat am no dey plenti”, she explain. For eight days Virtue pikin dey hospital and because she be a product designer, she come begin think wetin she do to take epp many pikin dem make dem no die from jaundice. She come put togeda a team of engineers, doctors and oda sabi pipo dem, dem come manufacture Crib a’ aglow wey be phototherapy unit wey no dey only use normal public electric power but fit use sun light as power. She say her joy na to see di equipment get to village hospital to epp poor pipo dem.