Nothing irritates a teacher more than a student who does not concentrate during lessons. In the years of yore, when children or even human rights were unheard of, this would invite proper caning and even suspension.
But to a Siaya based teacher, Mary Cynthia Akoth Ochieng and her students at Ambrose Adeya Adongo secondary school, lack of concentration during lessons is something they are used to.
They have learnt to accommodate each other, with the students forced to make do with the source of disruption, their teacher’s oxygen concentrator that has become part of her life for close to a year now.
Cynthia, as she is commonly known, cannot survive without the oxygen support after she was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease that has damaged her lungs. What started as a minor cough in 2017 when she was doing her teaching practicals has over the years defied medication, leading to the failure of her lungs.
According to the mother of two, she has been on medication since 2017 but things changed in March, 2024. “I had an attack on the night of 15th March, 2024 and was rushed to Bama hospital next to where I stay and I was immediately put on oxygen” she says adding that the doctors at the facility found that she was not having enough oxygen in her lungs.
Cynthia says that the oxygen saturation in her lungs was 30% against a normal person’s requirement of 90 to 100%.
Speaking to journalists at her house in Kalulu estate in Siaya town, Cynthia says that medical experts have advised her to seek lung transplant as the only solution to her condition. She says that she has sought medical attention from pulmonologists in Eldoret and Nairobi who reached a conclusion that the only remedy was for her to undergo lung transplant.
“The problem is that this cannot be done locally and I have to travel to India,” she says adding that her medical journey has so far exhausted all her savings and that of the family.
The teacher of mathematics and Chemistry says that she is currently using expensive drugs and is on oxygen 24 hours, something that has affected her work as a teacher. “I spend more than sh. 1,200 on drugs daily to remain alive” she says.
Cynthia says that one of her medical insurance covers, AON help her cover some expenses but cannot do much as the medicines and other expenses are beyond the cover.
“I am also a contributor to the social health insurance fund (SHIF) which, like its predecessor, NHIF, only takes care of the hospital bed,” she says.
She calls on the government to consider expanding the SHIF to cover serious ailments like the one she is suffering from.
Her mother, Claris Atieno Oriedi says the family has been left destitute as a result of her first born’s condition and appealed to well-wishers to come to their aid.
Well-wishers can support through 0710104416 (Mary Cynthia Akoth Ochieng) or 0727455063 (Claris Atieno Oriedi)
By Philip Onyango
