Ms. Laide Lanre-Badmus is the Principal Partner at Purifoy Seven Drops on Ten Ltd and Founder, Laide Lanre-Badmus (LLB) Foundation Africa.
In this interview with Media-men recently, she spoke about her close shave with death after her experience with Fibroid surgery and why the 1st anniversary celebration and outreach of her Foundation could not hold.
Your Foundation, LLB Foundation Africa clocked one last year November. How has the experience been?
Thank you. The experience is been wonderful. We have not done badly in one year. We’ll keep putting in our best. But unfortunately we couldn’t celebrate the 1st anniversary as planned. I was very sick. I didn’t know. I went for my general medical checkup and now realized that I had anemia.
So we now had to conduct a scan to find out why I had anemia. Unfortunately they find out that I had Fibroid. So that was the reason why I was suffering from Anemia. I was already dealing with short of blood. And I was also working in-between. I was working towards the 1st anniversary of my Foundation. It, however, got to a point that I couldn’t handle it anymore because I was bleeding heavily.
There were days that I would just slumped. It was becoming a threat to my life. I had to go and see my gynecologist who advised we do the surgery as soon as possible, so as to avoid future regrets. That is the reason you have not been hearing from me, and that is the reason why I couldn’t go ahead with the anniversary and outreach as planned.
Tell us about your experience with the Fibroid surgery?
In fact, it is an excruciating experience that I don’t even wish my enemy. But thankfully I went to one of the best hospitals in Abuja. That is Deda Hospital. It’s owned by Doctor Sunday Onuh. He’s one of the best in this profession. And thankfully also, the holy spirit really took charge. That is what I would say because I was supposed to go for a Fibroid surgery. I had series of tests, and we were able to pick a date for the surgery. That was supposed to be second week in December. The tests became necessary because I had already short of blood. I could say I bled for the better part of 2024.
It was just God that saved my life. I don’t know how He did it up till now. I didn’t know my enemy was a walking ghost as at that time. To cut the long story short, the day of the surgery came. I was taken to the theatre but I was later told when I came around that the surgery took longer than necessary. Because when they opened me up to remove the Fibroid, they find that my intestines were already out. And I didn’t know. Thank God for the lives of the experienced surgeons with Dr. Onuh. They had to first of all put back my intestines to their rightful positions before carrying out the main surgery. So that, and the removal of Fibroid took them more than three and half hours. They ended up having a 2-in-1 surgery. They call it a difficult myectomy. I asked them why? They said it was as result of surgery I had in the past. I have had ectopic pregnancy twice. The pregnancy outside the fallopian tube. So the option is either it’s removed or the carrier of the pregnancy would die. The past surgeries according to the doctors were the things that had really affected my intestines. It was not funny at all. I asked the doctors that what if I didn’t have reason for a Fibroid surgery? They said, God forbid, that my enemy might be walking one day and the intestines would just locked up. What I learnt from this is that most of us live but we hardly check ourselves. There are so many tests that we all need to be doing at every point in time. If not for that, I wouldn’t have known. My enemy would have been dead by now. So the excruciating pains of having a 2-in-1 major surgery was hell. It got to a time I was begging the doctor to just tell God to just safe me. I thought I was going to die. You know my intestines were out and had to be put back to their positions. So for my bowels to now start working again it took time. I couldn’t eat for 15 days. I was on strong antibiotics, strong medications. And you can imagine someone that has also been dealing with ulcer for 30 years. Thank God, and thank God for Dr. Onuh of Deda Hospital. That hospital is God’s own project trust me. Because if not for God and those people am sure we wouldn’t have be saying what we are saying today. I know 3 people that had that same Fibroid surgery around that time that are dead in this Abuja. They probably went to some private or government hospitals. One of them was even given an overdose of blood. I received 8 pints of blood. But they didn’t just give me. I was admitted a day to the surgery, based on my medical reports. I had at least 4 pints of blood a day to the surgery. They were monitoring me. In fact I had access to almost 25 different consultants. As Dr. Onuh said, “untill you are totally well they won’t rest”. That is the aim in that hospital. Of course, it’s not a cheap place but trust me, it’s a place you would never regret going to. I know the number of highly placed dignitaries that I met there.
What were your thoughts at the point that the whole thing got complicated?
Death. I thought I was going to die. I had already called my lawyer before the surgery. I told him the things that I have. I also mentioned the names of those owing me money. He was like I should please stop. You know we see a lot of deaths lately on social media. So I was like okay, this is where the enemies want to get me. I won’t lie to you I was hopeless. In fact I had to start begging God for forgiveness. I was hopeless and anxious at the same time.
But the very first day that I stepped into Deda Hospital I was calmed. After I had seen the first and second consultants, I met with Dr. Onuh himself. Immediately I set into Dr. Onuh ‘s office all my anxiety just disappeared. That was the moment I realized that the holy Spirit was involved. And from that moment the only thing I was telling God was, let your will be done in my life. I believed I had the covenant of life, and I believed that I had come to the right place. I believed the man is an ordained man of God. That God has put the medical thing in his hands for us His children. I didn’t have any other thing to say than for God to have mercy on me. And that was it. But despite the fact that I had faith in me I was so scared. You know what the doctor told me? He said Laide, do you know how many road accidents we see everyday? Have you stopped moving on the road? Do you know how many plane crashes we hear about every now and then? Have we stopped flying?
That was when I told him that I had a major car accident two years ago. That my Mercedes Benz was even a total right-off. And I’m driving another Mercedes Benz today. I have been in a plane that crashed landed before. And it was even another plane they brought to pick us. He said why are you now stressing yourself? That bad thing will never be our portion because we are children of God. The man is not just a doctor, he’s a man of God. He’s a leader in the Redeemed Church. He always makes sure that his patients are fine after everything. He’s a father-figure. I have been meeting great medical practitioners but this man is second to none.
Has the experience changed your perspective about life in any way?
Yes, it has. The first thing is being a single woman. I realized that there is more to life than just giving up on having a companion. Because being lonely, being single had actually had a huge negative impact on me. I didn’t have anybody around to hold my hands except my workers. No husband, no children. And this is me that had already made up my mind not to marry again or have any serious relationship. But that experience made me realized that God didn’t make mistakes when he said we have to have one another. So one thing that I’m actually looking forward to now is once I’m totally healed I want to give relationship another try. If my enemy was to have died that day, it would have been strangers that would have taken whatever it is that I have before they get to talk to my family.
What is your advice for women out there?
I asked the doctors why Fibroid is rampant in Africa. I heard of a lade of 28 years of age that had a Fibroid surgery around the time I had my own but not the same hospital. It was one of my staff who told me about the lady’s case. I had to transfer money from my sick bed to support her surgery. The doctors made me understand that there are so many things responsible for Fibroid in women. But the most important thing, according to the doctors, is because the wombs want babies. So when they are not engaged then the wicked virus just start doing its own thing. I don’t think it’s cancerous but the pains and danger of having it is almost as bad as cancer itself. So I would advise women to Marry early if they can. That is one of the regrets I have now because while my mates were settling down I was more into business and making money. Another thing is for women to constantly go for checkup. I do my own medical checkup every seven months. The first medical checkup I did in March last year covers 18 different tests. It costs me over 500,000 naira. My friends were like you have money. I said no, it’s not because I have the money but because it’s necessary. Some of the tests that I run constantly include HIV, Blood Counts, Hepatitis B and all. I kept on doing that because I realized that those things could be contacted even without sex. Women spend a lot on fashion. We spend a whole lot on looking good. Let’s take good care of our health too. And let’s us use good hospitals. Don’t let us look at the costs. Like Deda now, it’s affordable if God has blessed you. And Dr. Onuh’s own is not even all after the money but the wellbeing of his patients.
I asked a few friends recently about the last time they go for checkup. They were like what is their own. That they didn’t even have money to eat. And they are lying, they have money. They buy gold and all but to put the money on tests is their problem. There was a day one of my friends just woke up one morning and find out that she had breast cancer. She hasn’t been doing checkup. They eventually had to remove one of her breasts in UCH. Now she is going through chemotherapy. If she has been doing running tests she would have detected it earlier.
