Health
41-year-old mother of three battles kidney failure, seeks N40m for transplant
By Fawzi Kehinde
A 41-year-old caterer and mother of three, Omolade Bolaji, is fighting for her life as kidney failure pushes her family to beg Nigerians for N40m to fund a transplant that doctors say is now her only hope.
Bolaji, who runs a restaurant in Ikorodu, Lagos State, first developed constant headaches in 2025. She was shuttled between five hospitals that treated her for typhoid before doctors traced the problem to her kidneys.
Her husband, Olaleye Tubi, a driver, narrated the family’s ordeal to our correspondent on Friday.
“All the hospitals were telling us she had typhoid. So we continued treating her for typhoid until we got to the fifth hospital, and I was tired of spending money on the same treatment,” Tubi said.
When herbal medicine also failed, a hospital in Ayobo diagnosed her with a kidney problem and high blood pressure.
Bolaji began dialysis in July 2025, twice weekly, at the Critical Care Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
Laboratory results reviewed by our correspondent showed her creatinine level at 14.2mg/dl in May 2026, more than 12 times the normal limit, while her haemoglobin fell as low as 6.1g/dl, less than half the normal range for a woman her age.
Last month, she fainted at home and did not regain full consciousness for four days.
“She did not wake up for like four days. She did not eat, she did not talk to anybody. When she woke up, the doctor said we have to plan for the transplant, that the kidney can no longer take care of the body again.
“As I’m talking to you now, her BP is between 261 and 270. We nearly lost her yesterday. I was not at home when my children called me, but when we got home and I checked her, she was on 270. That was the highest I have read so far,” Tubi said.
A virtual consultation with doctors in India put the cost of a transplant at N68m with a willing donor, and over N100m without one.
Locally, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital offers the procedure for about N30m with a donor, plus six months of post-operation treatment for both donor and recipient, bringing the total to roughly N40m.
Tubi said the family has raised only about N1.5m so far from colleagues and relatives, a sum steadily drained by the cost of keeping his wife alive on dialysis.
“Each session for the machine is N40,000. The injection is N12,900. If her PCV is less than 22 per cent, we need to buy blood, and it becomes N72,000. If not, it’s N59,000,” he said.
In a video appeal shared with our correspondent, Bolaji spoke directly to Nigerians.
“I have small children. They still need their mother. Your help is all I need. May sickness not find you. Please help me. Your 1k, 2k, 5k will go a long way. God will continue to provide for you, amen,” she said.
Donations can be made to:
Bank: GTBank
Account number: 0007322227
Name: Tubi Olaleye Moses.
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