Donald in Hospital Update 5/3/25
- p9foundation
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Donald is in Hospital
Donald in Ghana was born about 18 months ago. His mother, Favour, is a teenager
from Nigeria living in Accra at the time. She lost her job when she became pregnant
and her boyfriend abandoned her. She was homeless and without any money for any
prenatal care during her pregnancy. She came to our friend John in Accra asking for
help. We arranged for her to be taken care of and made it possible for her to give
birth in a hospital.
The baby was given the name Donald. We have been doing what we can to take care of
him since his birth. It hasn't been easy. Our funds are limited, and we have a
responsibility to several other children in Ghana as well as Donald so often there
hasn't been enough to go around. But we have always made an effort to make sure
that Donald was one of the children who always had enough to get along, no matter
what.
Last month was an especially difficult time. John's continuing and life-threatening
health problems flared up so badly that he simply was not able to help anyone. His
entire life was reduced to trying to stay alive. During that time, he lost touch
with Favour. When he had recovered enough to seek them out, he found that Favour had
left Donald with another woman in a village outside of Accra and had disappeared.
John found Donald abandoned, neglected, and sick.
We arranged for Donald to receive medical care and paid the lady he had been left
with to take care of him until we could make other arrangements. John had
responsibilities at his own hometown some distance from where Donald was staying
but he meant to get back to him as soon as he possibly could. But in the meantime
Donald's illness flared up again. He became weak and his eyes turned yellow, always
a bad sign. He has suffered all of his life from a botched circumcision and the open
sore had once again become infected.
The woman who was paid to care for him became alarmed and fled, leaving Donald
abandoned yet again and alone. Fortunately, a lady we had been paying to care for
Twinabu, another of our small children, found him and took him to hospital. She
informed John of the situation and John immediately went to the hospital to check
on the little boy and to talk with the doctors.
Donald is very ill from the infected sore on his genitals. The doctors are going to
operate on him and try to save his penis. They may not be able to. It is a very
worrying time and we don't know what will happen.
Donald has had a rough life from the time he was born, His mother has been
negligent at best and possibly abusive. Apparently, the lady Favour left him with
was also treating him badly. He has had nothing but illness, pain, abuse, and
neglect.
Whatever happens, if Donald survives what he is going through we are determined that
we will get him into a safe environment where he will properly cared for and will
get the gentle attention that all small children deserve.
We will know more in a few days.
