Help has come for a man with septic wound abandoned at Mission Hill along Ossah Road in Umuahia, Abia State as about 2,000 maggots were removed from his wound while he was being treated.

Victor Nelson, about 70 years of age, is being treated by the Founder of Isaiah 58 Care Foundation where Mrs. Uzoamaka Ujah, who has undertaken to be dressing the man's wound to save him from dying.

Apart from the wound dressing, which looks like a first aid, Mrs. Ujah said the man needs urgent medical attention to save his life. Nelson who was hardly audible said he hails from Bendel (Edo) State and was working as a security man at a clinic in Benin when he injured his leg. He said he lives in the vicinity of the Abia Line loading bay in Benin.

He told News Express in an interview that he got the injury around May this year, adding that because it was not treated his leg got swollen and began to rot.

He could not state clearly how and when he came to Umuahia but it appears he came to see someone and missed his way.

Below is the interview News Express had with Nelson near Eze Yam Filling Station in Umuahia.

Q: What is your name?

A: My name is Victor Nelson,

Q: Where are you from?

A: I am from Bendel

Q: From Edo State?

A: Yes

Q: What happened to your leg?

A: I was going on work that day; I hit my leg on something, then the thing come swell up

Q: What work do you do?

A: Security

Q: Where is your place of work?

A: RESCO Clinic (Spelt as pronounced)

Q: When did you get the wound?

A: Around May

Q: How did you come to Abia?

A: My sister at Bendel, they said that they are travelling to their place, Akwa Ibom where they were going to bury their father.

Q: What is the name of your sister?

A: They have travelled

Q: How did you come to Abia?

A: I enter Abia Line

Q: Why are you here now?

A: I no see the driver

Q: Was your plan to come to Abia and go back?

A: Yes

Mrs. Ujah, who is also the Abia State Malaria Programme Manager, said she got a distressed call from one Zack Okoronkwo who drew her attention to the plight of an abandoned old man along Mission Hill, Umuahia.

She said she rushed to see the man and was able to get him food that night because it was already late.

Tuesday morning, Mrs. Ujah said she came with her Foundation’s team to treat the man.

“This morning, I and my team decided to come and see the man. What we saw is terrible.

His leg is just septic, rotten, with a lot of maggots, more than 2,000 maggots, big and small, jumping up and down. His wound was very offensive and septic, the bones are out as you can see the bones, you can see the tendons.

“The man needs urgent medical attention. We have also fed him today. Tomorrow morning we will come and dress him. We will be dressing him because we don't have the fund to take him to hospital. The much my foundation can do with my team is to be dressing him here and feeding him. But the man is scared that the owners of where he is currently staying will drive him away.

“He is even begging us that we should take him home, that he can find his home if taken home. When he is rehabilitated, he will be taken home.”

Mrs. Ujah said she could not diagnose anything, except “to dress the sceptic wound, remove his psychosocial problem and reassure him but he needs medical attention, urgent one.”

Okoronkwo who kept surveillance on the man for days before looking for assistance, said he was afraid that the man was going to die and commended Mrs. Ujah for reviving him.

“I saw this man here on this street. But over some days, he was stagnant at a place, he wasn't eating, he wasn’t drinking. So, at a point, I suspected that this man was going to die and somebody has to do something about it,” Okoronkwo narrated.

He said his efforts to draw the attention of the Ministry of Health to the man’s plight failed but officials of the Ministry directed him to Mrs Ujah.

Full of praises for Mrs. Ujah, Okoronkwo said: “She acted promptly by coming to take care of the man. Since she came yesterday (Monday), she has been extraordinary. She took this man as if they are related and I know that she doesn't know where this man comes from.”

“If I was waiting for the Ministry of Health, I wouldn't know when help would come. The man’s state was terrible, he looked so pale. The woman just revived him. When I saw this man before, he was not talking, I doubted even if he was breathing. But the NGO woman is wonderful. She has been able to revive the man and she is now talking with the man.”

Mrs. Ujah appealed to good-spirited individuals, corporate bodies to come to the aid of the man while expecting that those who know Nelson would come for him.

•Photo shows Victor Nelson.

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