By Akinwale Kasali
Veteran Actor, Zack Orji, has finally told his near death experience with a sudden ill-health.
The Actor had slumped in his bathroom and was rushed to the National Hospital Abuja where he was kept in the Intensive Care Unit for a couple of days before he was taken to another hospital where he underwent two brain surgeries.
Speaking on Channels Television, Orji revealed that it took the intervention of his friend, Bala Ahmed in the United Kingdom, when alerted of his situation, to promptly contact his colleagues in Nigeria who hurriedly came to his aid.
The actor disclosed that he underwent two brain surgeries to remain alive, and added: It was “a miracle and God’s Grace that I am alive.”
Orji: “I can only say that it’s by the grace of God that I’m alive today because I passed out. I was out for like five and a half hours before help came.
“Benedict Johnson rushed to the house, and I was there on the floor, incoherent. I couldn’t even stand because when he raised me, I slumped again, and he had to call another colleague who we call Labista.
“So the two of them lifted me on their shoulders from the second floor to the ground floor and took me to the National Hospital.”
He disclosed that the first surgery he had was performed by a neurosurgeon, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, who he said was an ‘awesome guy’.
After Ogungbo performed the surgery successfully, weeks later, scans revealed a residual blood clot. Orji underwent a second surgery performed by same doctor.
He said: ‘But in all of it, I’m grateful to God Almighty and I’m also grateful to so many people who stepped in. The President of Nigeria, the First Lady, the wife to the Vice President, the President’s son, the Minister for Women’s Affairs, the Minister for Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, the Minister for Works, and a whole lot of other people.
“I was receiving calls from South Africa, from the UK, from the US. Some of them were willing to, they were asking me, how can we help? How can we be of assistance? So it was overwhelming the way people responded to the whole thing,
Orji, after his recovery in Nigeria, however, was advised to seek post-surgery assessment in the UK, where he consulted with Dr. John Yeh.
“I’m grateful to God Almighty and I’m also grateful to so many people who stepped in,” he said.
