Ahmedabad Civil Hospital gives Nigerian kid voice & life.

Hope was fast fading for Ifeoluwa Adeyemi, 8, when he came to Ahmedabad from Nigeria suffering from complete kidney failure, deafness and Hepatitis C.

On Sunday, he will fly home with new-found health, his ears soaking up new sounds and his lips babbling new words. Not just corporate hospitals but even public hospitals like the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital are now proving to be a one-stop medical destination for critically ill patients with multiple problems from abroad.

Doctors say that Ifeoluwa is a rare case. "He is the first child with Hepatitis C to undergo transplant for renal failure and deafness. There are 12 cases reported in the world of children with deafness and renal failure," said Dr Rajesh Vishwakarma, head of the ENT department at Civil Hospital.

The surgeries were risky but Ifeoluwa has done well. "A kidney donated by Ifeoluwa's father was transplanted to him at the Institute of Kidney Disease and Research Centre (IKDRC) in January 2010. After this, his parents insisted on a cochlear transplant to treat his deafness. This was risky since the boy was on immunotherapy after kidney transplant and there was a high chance that his body would reject the implant. But he healed perfectly after the surgery and the machine was switched on in July," said Dr Vishwakarma.

Ifeoluwa is the only son of his parents and was born perfectly healthy. Measles struck when he was four months old which left him deaf. As Ifeoluwa's mother Foluke, who used to serve in the army before she joined her husband in computer software business, was looking for a cure for his deafness, the child was afflicted with malaria which damaged his kidneys.

"We did a lot of research and zeroed in on Ahmedabad Civil Hospital as a lot of people from Africa come to IKDRC for kidney transplant. Now, my son got a fresh lease of life and he also tries to say Mamma and Dada," Foluke said.

Times of India, Radha Sharma, Aug 8, 2010