When the story of how Daniel Ohikhena sneaked into the compartment of a plane on its way to Lagos from Benin Airport last year was brought to the front burner by the media, it attracted attention.
The 13-year-old boy had thought the plane was on its way to the United States of America, where he planned to start a new life. Having survived the life threatening incident which lasted for almost one hour, he instantly became a celebrity making headlines of several national newspapers and magazines.
Some organisations and even the Edo State government promised to sponsor his education while others offered to assist his family owing to the pitiable circumstances the boy claimed led him to the act.
Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole went as far as hosting the boy and his mother and reeled out his plans for the beleaguered chap. Months after the euphoria, no one thought about the implication of his action on his health.
However, barely had he resumed as a boarding house student at the Edo College, Benin on the bill of Edo State, the boy is now grasping with what he identified as strange noise affecting his ear which a medical expert said was the aftermath effect of his adventure.
When Saturday Independent visited him where he is presently receiving treatment, he said for sometimes, he had been battling with persistent loud inner noise affecting his ears especially in the night.
The school authority has been notified of the development and they have acted promptly by taking him to the state government-owned Stella Obasanjo Hospital where the case is being handled.
Daniel also disclosed that he would like to be relocated to another school where his identity would not be revealed as some his seniors at Edo College are fond of taunting him with the stowaway incident.
On the other hand, his mum, Evelyn said she has been going
through hell to cater for her four the children she had for her estranged husband.
She lamented that instead of assisting her to take care of the kids, she was being inundated with request for money by some people, including her former husband, who have erroneous impression that Governor Oshiomhole gave her N5million to attend her personal needs having told him that her hairdressing salon was razed by fire months ago, making her hapless to cater for her son who resorted to risk his life in the plane.
According to Dr. Patrick Okundia, a Ear, Nose and Throat
(ENT) consultant and Head of Department of the ENT at the hospital, Daniel has been examined.
“He was examined and we assessed his ear, nose and
throat. We carried out several clinical tests on his ears. After that, the result showed that while there were some level of injuries on the nerve of the inner ear – the cochlear nerve. You must understand that there is what is called noise exposure on its own. Noise exposure can be divided into sudden blast or persistent exposure to a not too loud noise.”
“This lad was in between. The noise from the engine of the plane on its own is deafening. To have been exposed to that for a persistent period of time, for more than 30 minutes, one would expect some level of irreversible damage to the inner ear. The management wants to see how we can either slow the process of damage or arrest it.”
“But we may have challenge in reversing the already damaged ones. That is the situation we have with Daniel. He has
been on medication. We have tried to apply some other maneuvers
to improve the function of his ears.”
“The best we have done was to prevent it from getting worse. But we’ve not been able to achieve complete reversal which to me looks very difficult. Most damages to nerves are irreversible. You cannot grow a new nerve once one it is damaged. It’s a bit unfortunate but we still give thanks to God that he is alive.”
“May be with persistent medication and with time some level of healing may take place. That could reduce the seriousness of the noise but as it is, the issue of noise in the ear has some other side effects in terms of psychological. It is also having some level of depression on him. We just pray that it doesn’t degenerate to any neurological, psychological problems for him.”
“The lesson learnt is that for every action there is always a reaction. He may have done the wrong thing and he may have been pardoned by the people and the government but nature has not completely forgiven him and so that irreversible damage is there.”
He also disclosed that in some cases where drugs are not able to take care of the noise in the ear other supportive therapy like the ear maskers are used. He said that in such instances, such patients are told to adapt to situations where an exogenous source creates the noise outside that would end up dampening the noise they hear inside.
The lesson learnt is that for every action there is always a reaction. He may have done the wrong thing and he may have been pardoned by the people and the government but nature has not completely forgiven him and so that irreversible damage is there.
Source: Daily Independent
