The family of nine‑month‑old Victor Olubodin has been thrown into panic after he was diagnosed with a critical heart condition. Victor, a twin, urgently needs surgery that will cost about N8 million. His mother, Mrs. Adeola Olubodun, told City Round on Friday that the family has known no peace since the diagnosis three months ago. “The pregnancy was smooth. There was nothing suggesting that any of the babies had any condition,” she said. She was shocked, however, when Victor developed breathing difficulty and became overweight after three months. Concerned, the family took him to a hospital, where numerous tests revealed a double‑outlet right ventricle, commonly referred to as a hole in the heart. “It was like a dream. Everything happened fast. One moment we were celebrating, another moment we were talking about surgery,” she recalled. “In the space of nine months, I have been through what I have not been through my entire life, and I don’t want my son to die. He is the only son in the family. I cannot afford to lose him.”
In a report dated 19 January 2023, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist Dr. Olumuyiwa Folayan of University College Hospital, Ibadan, who is managing Victor, noted that the infant presented at the paediatric emergency room with poor weight gain, frequent suck‑pause cycles, recurrent cough and fast breathing that had been noticed three months earlier. “His pregnancy and neonatal periods were uneventful and his twin sister is growing well,” the report stated. On examination, Victor showed signs of respiratory distress, coarse crepitations in the lungs, a bounding pulse of 170 beats per minute, a precordial bulge, normal first heart sounds, a loud pulmonary component of the second heart sound, and a grade 3/6 pansystolic murmur at the left lower sternal border. Chest X‑ray showed cardiomegaly; ECG indicated left‑atrial enlargement and left‑ventricular hypertrophy; and echocardiography revealed double‑outlet right ventricle (DORV) with a large unrestrictive VSD and PDA. He was treated for pneumonia in heart failure on the background of DORV and is currently receiving oral hydrochlorothiazide and spironolactone at 1 mg/kg every 12 hours while awaiting definitive surgical intervention. Victor will require open‑heart surgery to correct the cardiac defects.
Mrs. Olubodun disclosed that the surgery, to be performed in India, would cost between N7.5 million and N8 million. Donations can be sent to the patient’s GTBank account, 0767243376, under the name Olubodun Victor Joash.
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