Ojiabo Comfort Adaora’s Lucky Day

A Story of Thanksgiving

Mrs. Ojiabo Comfort Adaora was diagnosed with complete heart block 5-months ago.  Her story is one like many.  No funds to cover the cost of the procedure or device.  Ojiabo needed a permanent pacemaker implanted and soon.  This once lively retired teacher who still volunteered at her school found she no longer had the energy to volunteer or even go to church on Sunday.  Basic activities of daily living exhausted her.  She could no longer keep up with her grandchildren or cook and care for her family.  Lucky for Ojiabo, CardioStart was planning a training mission to LASUTH to assist LASUTH in their brand-new catheterization lab.  Our interventional cardiology team and the local team, side-by-side, implanted the donated pacemaker from Medtronic and gave Ojiabo her life back.  

Ojiabo is thankful to the donors, companies, volunteers and LASUTH who were all part of her care and treatment.  She is so very happy to be what her children say is “the life of the party”.  She is already back to the school with the kids gathered around her cooking soup to her taste.  Her family says they “love seeing her smile again.”  

Message from Chioma Chika 

I don’t know how much you believe in miracles, but I do believe this to be our miracle from God almighty. 

For one, I do not belong to the consultant WhatsApp group where this flyer was posted but the doctor that saw her at the general hospital sent it to me when I came short of the 2 million naira ($4556 USD) they asked me to pay for the procedure.

I borrowed and added up savings but could only come up with 1.5 million. The surgery was rebooked until I could pay in full. There was no payment plan offered.

So that day I emailed CardioStart, I was at my wit’s end not knowing what to do so when the consultant sent me this flyer.  I noticed there was no phone contact number, and she didn’t have any more information.

On the spur of the moment, I decided to search for the organizer online, CardioStart International as shown on the flyer. The search brought me to the website where I found a contact email and I sent an email without really expecting a response. You can imagine how I felt when your reply came. The rest is history.