By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
One hundred and seventy patients including soldiers with various forms of injuries, while fighting Boko-Haram and related victims have benefitted from limbs courtesy of The Leprosy Mission (TLM) in Minna, Niger State.
The TLM National Director, Dr. Sunday Udo, disclosed this at the commissioning of the new Orthopedic Ward in Minna.
He also hinted that five rooms and 10 bed spaces Ward has been built to enhance and facilitate movements of patients.
Udo said, “For the past one year, we have fitted over one hundred and fifty limbs cutting across different disabilities. Some of our clients included members of the Nigerian Armed Forces who sent injured soldiers from the Boko-Haram insurgency and also accident victims”.
According to the TLM National Director, “The limb fittings we do here is not just of the best in but very affordable compared to when patients travel abroad or visit some other health facilities in other parts of the country”.
Also, a member of Trustee of the Leprosy Global Fellowship and former Deputy Governor of Niger State, Dr. Shem Zagbayi Nuhu, said that the idea was conceived and approved by the Leprosy Mission of England and Wales.
Dr. Zagbayi Nuhu said, “Raising funds for support of persons with disabilities, particular othopaedic cases is a major challenge in Nigeria for people living with disability and leprosy and the project runs into millions of Naira”.
The former deputy governor, who was incidentally born at the TLM, Minna in 1957, challenged Nigerians not to treat affected persons with disdain because doing so, ‘can lead to psychological trauma’.