Family and friends of a businesswoman, Judith Omonua, who died after efforts to undergo a heart procedure proved abortive due to the lockdown, have been grieving over her demise.
Judith’s sister took to her Instagram page, @ghunueffects, to announce the tragic news and also chronicled the circumstances surrounding the businesswoman’s death.
The account, which had been trending on the social media, stated that the 24-year-old had been battling complications associated with a heart disease for three years until she died on April 27, 2020.
Until her death, Judith was said to have been confined to a wheelchair and placed on oxygen as her health deteriorated. At a point, she reportedly coughed and vomited blood for three consecutive days.
However, it was gathered that Judith was told to undergo a surgery to ease the strain on her heart, but the procedure could not be carried out due to the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
The sister wrote, “She (Judith) was given hope when we were told dat she could get an implant (heart pace maker surgery) done to ease d strain on her heart but dat had to be after the lockdown. D end of the lockdown neva came for Ghunu, Ghunu started hinting about how tired she was of d constant pain. She was loosing hope of ever getting well n we gradually watched her deteriorate! We tried to build her faith, we tried to talk her out of her constant brooding moods n desire to give up!
“We told her that the lockdown would be ova soon n she’ll get her surgery done! I remembered wen she coughed n vomited blood for 3 days just becos she ate noodles n she wasn’t supposed to take anything with Sodium in it! On Sunday night was wen she finally accepted dat dis world wasn’t for her anymore. She kept on saying she was tired n refused to respond to prayers of faith n health processes over her. She had made her peace wit God…
“I snuck into her room at almost 3am on Monday just to see how she was fairing, I put her thin withering hands on my Facebook kissed her palm like I always love to do wen she was asleep! I neva imagined dat was the last time I was going to feel my sister alive!…I slept on Monday morning n didn’t do my routine check on Ghunu thinking I’ll go n disturb her in d afternoon like I always do!…I barged into her room like I always do (as a big sister nao) I was like ‘Nunu dey have brought light oh, lemme help u turn on ur AC lazy geh’ But Ghunu didn’t respond…
“I screamed for help n my mum n bro came rushing in! I performed CPR on her, poured water on her but notyn! I even went ahead to cut her with a razor blade thinking d pain would make her twitch but wot came out was black blood! I didn’t want to accept that the inevitable had happen so I used her BP machine to check for her blood pressure! Went down to 0 n error! No pulse or heartbeat. We drove her to the hospital in a frenzy! I was screaming n asking d Drs to do anytin dat I was ready to pay! She was pronounced BID ‘Brought in dead’.”
When Instablog9ja posted the news about the tragic incident, Nigerians took to their social media handles to commiserate with the family
One Clara, through her Instagram handle, @thephenomenal_girl, wrote, “I felt chills down my spine reading this. May her soul RIP. Rest on sister, you can finally rest from the pains.”
While @souvnirgbanjo described Judith as “a kind and humble lady,” another Instagram user, @bestwigsandskincare, stated that she had known the businesswoman “to be a very hard working lady for years.”
In the official announcement of Judith’s death, the funeral service was fixed for Friday, May 1, 2020.