FOR being born with male and female organs,
29-year-old Oluwaseun Samuel Fajilade, a student of the School of
Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, life has been one long
psychological trauma of being used as a ‘guinea pig’ for training
medical students.
Seun, whose pathetic condition is medically known as Disorders of
Sex Development was born to the family of Mr. Babatunde and Mrs. Kehinde
Fajilade on March 16,1987 at Onikan Health Centre, Lagos State.
At the time of his birth, doctors told his parents that his gender
could not be clearly distinguished. Within a few hours, the parents were
referred to Massey hospital, a specialist health facility for children
on Lagos Island, where new baby was admitted.
According to Oluwaseun’s father, Mr. Babatunde Fajilade, doctors at
the hospital after examining Baby Seun that night, informed the parents
that his case was beyond what they could handle. The next morning, the
family was referred to Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi
Araba, where he was on admission for a week for evaluation before being
discharged for the naming ceremony to be done.
After the naming ceremony, the family returned to LUTH.
Recalling those days, Seun’s father told Sunday Sun: “We
spent about four months there going up and down for diagnosis, tests and
x-rays. At times, more than 20 clinical students would surround him, as
he was being used for practical learning.”
Expectedly, that infuriated Babatunde, but he endured it all in the
hope that it could somehow lead to solution of the congenital
developmental problem of his son.
For the first five years of Seun’s life, his father said that he had
no testicles as the doctor told the family that an operation to correct
that could only be done when he was six years old. When he clocked six,
the operation was done and one of the testes descended into the scrotum.
At age 12, the second operation was done to make the second testis to
descend.
But more troubles beset Seun when his breasts began to enlarge like
that of girl reaching puberty. This development made the parents to
panic and headed back to the hospital and another round of tests,
x-rays, and other diagnoses that were done.
“We did that for some years. At a time, the hospital visits began to
affect his education. He could not go to school. We would get to the
hospital in the morning and they won’t attend to us until evening. It
took more than four years before doctors at LUTH eventually told us the
way forward. The professor in charge said our child could undergo
surgery that would make to be either male or female but the possibility
of conception would be slim.
When doctors asked Babatunde which sex he would prefer Seun be, he
opted for him to be a male child because he was given a male name at his
christening, and he could not turn around to re-introduce the child as a
female again. But the doctor said he should go home to think about it
properly, stressing that it would be better to opt for a female to
lessen cost.
“I told the doctor I would prefer my son to be my son. He said no. We
should go home and think deeply on it because to lessen our cost, he
advised us to opt for female since he was already developing bust. But I
said No! I have studied him well enough. He should be a man but if any
higher report advises against that, I have no choice. I just want him to
have a normal life.”
In quest for a solution to the predicament, Babatunde said the family had been to various churches.
“We kept hearing of different churches that performed miracles. We
went to Ori-oke, we went somewhere and spent over a year there with the
boy sleeping on a mat. But in all, we never went to any traditionalist
or alfa.
Babatunde described Oluwaseun’s childhood as a sweet and bitter
experience. The primary school days were okay, but when Seun got to
secondary school and became aware he had a problem, he started to
withdraw. He loved playing football but today he does not play anymore
or socialize with anyone. Seun lost admission to Yaba College of
Technology, where he wanted to study Banking and Finance but didn’t make
all the papers and was asked to withdraw. After staying at home and
toying with the idea of going to Ogun State Polytechnic School, the
father sent Seun to another school in Ekiti.
Through providence, Mr. Oluwaseun David Funmilayo, chief executive of
Divine Favor Foundation, learnt about the family through Mr. Kunle
Pedro, one of their friends. David said that after visiting the family,
and speaking with them, he made independent inquiries at LUTH, where he
obtained the medical records of Seun. According to the doctors, the male
organ is the dominant one and can be corrected. He gathered from the
doctors that the breast could be ingested and the female organ closed
while the penis would be pumped out. The doctor further disclosed that
it would take about two or three surgeries for the condition to be
corrected. For this reason, the family and the foundation are seeking
assistance from public-spirited individuals and companies.
When Sunday Sun visited the family at their home in Ogun
State, Seun was not at home as he was in school. At a time when his
fellow students are frolicking with the opposite sex, Seun has been
consigned to a solitary life with no close friends, let alone a
girlfriend.