In 2005, Nigerians received terrible news after a Sosoliso Airplane carrying 109 passengers crashed, killing almost all of it passengers immediately. Today, only two passengers on that fateful flight live to tell the story.
Kechi Okwuchi is one of them. Kechi was a student at the Loyola Jesuit College and was travelling with her other school mates when the crash happened. Though she survived, she sustained 70% burns on her body and remained in a coma for a month.
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Nigeria, took on the funding for Kechi from the time of the crash until she left for the United States in 2007. Being a minor under the age of 18, she had access to free medical health care in the US and she was admitted in the Shriners Chidlren’s Hospital, Galveston Texas, USA. Shriners Hospital specializes in the treatment of burns resulting from various forms of accidents for children. Children, according to the hospital’s policy, are people under the age of 18. However, the hospital, of their own discretion, decided to extend Kechi’s treatment to what has now become 3 more years.
Today 6 years later Kechi has undergone about a hundred different surgeries. These surgeries range from skin grafts to reconstructive surgeries.
However Kechi Okwuchi has now turned 21. According to the United States Government, she is now a legal adult. As a result she would no longer be a patient of Shriners Children’s Hospital. Shriners hospital has been kind enough to complete the surgeries they have begun. But there is still a long way to go
Kechi Okwuchi needs our help to complete all her reconstructive surgeries. A fundraiser will be held today to in honour of and for the purpose of raising funds for surgeries for her.
Please visit www.kechiokwuchifundraiser.com for more information. Most importantly please make a donation no matter how little it may be.
God bless
TyF
30th July 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment