Monrovia – Living abnormally can be heart wrenching, but for 19 years old Emmanuel George, it is also very painful.
Born in the suburb of Sinkor on the outskirts of Monrovia, George took ill at the tender age of five when his family had just moved to Bong County when what seemed like a rash began to grow on his nose, making it swollen.
A brash decision by his mother, Ma Quita, to use “country medicine” for one year—as it seemed funny—did not remedy the situation, making it all the more worse.
“It started growing like a rash and then we all were taking it to be fun,” she explains with a look of sorrow on her face. “But when it started getting serious, we started using country medicine on him for one year but still it could not go down—it just kept on growing.”
When the “country medicine” would not work, Ma Quita brought her son to Monrovia with a first stop at the Redemption Hospital but was advised by doctors to move on to the JFK Hospital as they could not solve the problem.
But even the JFK Hospital could not provide the respite to the mother and her ailing son as they were given a letter to go to the Jackson F. Doe Hospital in Tappita, Nimba County
“They did his X-ray and only told me that he had some kind of sickness. They just give me some medicine but still it could not help him,” she says.
As Ma Quita worried over the fate of her child, a silver lining appeared—Mercy Ship—in 2007 when the non-profit medical group sailed in the country to cure Liberians suffering from many illnesses.
A treatment from the foreign doctors helped Emmanuel George to return to normal but the condition started worsening since the beginning of this year.
“In 2007, I took him to the Mercyship people and they were able to help him get well but only the beginning part of this year it started coming back and it is more than even before,” she said.
Emmanuel’s situation sees his father becoming extremely nonchalant towards him, according to his mother. Neighbors too often mocked him, leading his mother incensed and often left to defend her son.
“I and these people can make heavy confusion for my son’s business when they put mouth on him”, she says.
For young Emmanuel, there is no pain, only the stretch he feels in his nose at night.
A student at Christian Missionary Fellowship International School, bullying forced him out of school.
“I could not stand it—my friends on campus were always teasing me,” he says with a tinge of sorrow and tears. “They started calling me all kinds of names which I could not bear; because of that I was forced to drop out of school”
Although he feels strong inwardly, he wants to continue his education but it is an impossible feat due to his condition.
“I’m calling on people to help me with my condition; I want to go back to school. I cannot be like this and go to school”, he concluded.
His mother can be contacted on 0886 465 560
J.H. Webster Clayeh [email protected]