It was gladness and great joy as embryos frozen more
than 5 years earlier in England were sent to a Lagos clinic, transferred to
Gladys’ uterus, successfully implanted and ended in a delivery of twin girls 29
weeks later…
Dr. Gladys Duruyani and Dr. Ishmael Hannaniya
were married for 20 years and just like any other couple, they tried to have
children.
However, unlike others, it took them several years to conceive and
despite the challenge with conception and their expectations, all the
pregnancies unfortunately ended in miscarriages.
This was a very grieving deal for them because the babies would
grow to about five or six months in the womb and then a miscarriage would occur
and some of these miscarriages were for multiple babies.
The enlightened couple utilized their globe-trotting exposure to
seek medical solution overseas, all to no avail. Eventually as time progressed,
Duruyani became ill and was diagnosed severally with various kinds of ailments.
She developed a type of cough the doctors could not understand and
on the film some dark spots were seen in her chest region and lungs. Being
devoted Christians, they sought medical solution to all the challenges yet
committed them all to the Lord as they expected some miracle.
Eventually the Lord took this strange ailment away from her. Their
challenges were numerous, and one day, while they dined at a Chinese restaurant
in Abuja, Duruyani began to bleed.
She knew what was happening. Her husband, who is a microbiologist,
a specialist neuro-physician, also rushed her to three different hospitals.
Unfortunately, in each hospital, the senior doctors had all gone home.
After the third stop, he rushed her to the National Teaching
Hospital where he found out again that all the senior doctors had also closed
for the day.
At this point of desperation, he had to take the bull by the horn,
choosing to go against the ethics of his profession that advise against a man
performing such a major surgery on his spouse. He had a vague idea of what to
do, besides there were some junior doctors around.
With the few junior doctors on duty, they quickly set up the
theatre and began the surgery to take out the blood clot that was about to
snuff life out of his beloved wife until an experienced doctor who came around
the hospital for an entirely different reason heard of the situation and ran to
take over the surgery already in progression.
On another day, she felt ill and in the cause of seeking a medical
solution in South Africa, they were told that the blood result was bad news.
The South African doctors gave the verdict; they were shaken and took the
challenge once more to the Lord in prayers.
They said, “it was a rare form of blood disease.” The couple were
shocked and torn apart for a while but braced up, rejecting the doctor’s report
and holding unto the Lord’s report.
They sought medical solution in the UK afterwards and the doctors
became puzzled and asked “who said she had a blood disease, a rare form of
blood cancer? To the glory of God, the results of the latter test showed there
was no trace of the cancer.
Did a miracle take place? They rejoiced and praised the Lord. Soon
after this great news, they got a call from the South African doctors stating
that there was a mix-up with her tests.
They investigated further and confirmed that she did not have any
form of cancer in her system. Having gone through so much and having wailed on
the Lord in the secret place of the Lord, they remained sober and thankful for
once more sparing her life from the clutch of death.
After a while, they tried to have children again but it was to no
avail as the series of miscarriages continued. Eventually they figured that
since her womb could not keep the pregnancies, they would consider the option
of surrogacy.
Their Harley Street doctor who is one of the first doctors in the
world to successfully deliver in-vitro (IVF) babies had been very sympathetic
to their cause and after series of the failed IVF had suggested surrogacy to
them.
They began the necessary procedures and as embryos could be stored
for years, they decided to store the excess embryos while they sought for a
surrogate mother to carry their child.
Unfortunately, the surrogacy laws in Britain were so strict that
it would have been impossible to find a mother to carry the child. The doctor
who was natively Greek suggested that they find a surrogate in Greece.
They quickly embraced the idea but it was soon forgotten because
there was a serious problem with the transportation of the embryos out of the
region. When that failed, they tried to transport the embryos to Nigeria but
the results were the same as that of Greece. It seemed like they would never be
able to have their own children so they opted for adoption.
They adopted a little boy now six years old and they later adopted
a girl who is now aged four. Duruyani’s body had gone through so much strain
over these years and age was not on her side as she was classified as High Risk
Pregnancy (if she took in).
On two occasions she had been diagnosed with a strange form of
cancer, and later lymphoma, she had suffered a hemorrhage, suffered from a
strange cough which left dark patches on her lungs, she had suffered emotional,
physical and psychological trauma at the travails she had gone through amongst
other health challenges too numerous to mention. She had also been on total bed
rest all through these series of pregnancies that resulted in miscarriages.
Yet from all these, the Good Lord delivered her from the cold
hands of death. Her husband, Hannaniya, who is a rare Igbira man from Kogi
State and a distinguished gentleman remained a most loving husband to her, an
Igbomina from Kwara State and kept all their travails away from family and
friends.
THEY loved and doted on their two
adopted children and once more wondered if it was necessary to have more
children having gone through so much agony in their quest for their own
biological children.
The Lord understood
the desires of their heart and decided to seal their faith with a remarkable
gift to them in the year 2014. They got a call from their doctor in Harley
Street that the Law had lifted the storage limit of the human eggs/embryo which
negated the earlier law of five years. Perhaps because they were silently
thinking once more of their unborn children, they became expectant as a result
of the serendipity they experienced.
Once more at this
point in time, her embryos were still available and having tried all to no
avail, including the suggestion of surrogacy that could not hold for statutory
reasons, their deciding to try once more was not out of place.
This time they asked
for the frozen embryos to be sent to Nigeria and this became the appointed time
for them, as they were able to transport these embryos and implant them in
Lagos, Nigeria.
Twenty-nine weeks
after the implantation of the embryo, Dr. Hannaniya, while at work, got a call
from the surgeon that his twin baby girls had been delivered weighing 0.9kg and
1kg respectively. He could not believe his ears and questioned the time and
date of delivery to which the surgeon responded that it was either they were
saved at that point in time or they were lost like all the others gone.
Dr. Hannaniya, knowing
what everybody in this country and beyond knew which was that the babies had a
slim chance of survival in a country like Nigeria, did not get excited. He did
not worry either but chose as usual to leave this one more challenge to God.
For the first time
their babies had been delivered alive so it was clear that the Lord had given
them the miracle of an identical twin birth but with the incessant power
outages and the inadequate medical care especially for neonates in the
incubators, what would be the fate of these little ones? As usual and with
wisdom, he chose to keep the news away from family and friends for he did not
want to get excited over his preterm babies. They willingly submitted the case
to the Lord and waited for time to celebrate if it was the will of God for
them.
As God gave his
approval, both babies survived and were christened Grace and Esther on Sunday,
22nd March 2015 at the time of their expected date of delivery.
The other two children
who had been adopted were also christened on the same day aged six and four. There
was a lovely celebration of the two healthy babies and their older adopted
siblings afterwards at the beautiful event organized by the family in the
Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Their phenomenal testimony was shared by
the husband himself and all those present were amazed as Dr. Hannaniya shared
this incredible testimony of over 90 minutes while their guests were
entertained with food and drinks.
Their parents,
siblings, relations, friends, colleagues and well-wishers were speechless and
moved to tears of joy for the Grace of God on his beloved children, Duruyani
and Hannaniya, as they finally found complete joy in their now family of six.
There were great
lessons to learn from the power of prayers and the power in sealed lips for
they did not give room to any interference or sympathy from family and friends.
They had toured the world in search of
children of their own, they had spent money over the years, the Lord continued
to provide for them and eventually when they least expected it, the Lord showed
them that something good could still come out of their own country, Nigeria,
and this was the serendipity of our Lord, the perfection of science, their
dogged hope and above all, the abundant blessings of the Great God they serve.
