• ANFORD Lungu has been feeding through a tube for the past one year and is currently soliciting for funds to receive treatment at Lusaka Trust Hospital to have his problem rectified. Picture by CHUSA SICHONE

By CHUSA SICHONE –
A man of Chipata who has been feeding through a tube attached to his stomach for one year has appealed to well-wishers to assist him with K490 to undergo an operation in Lusaka.
Anford Lungu, 44, has been spending nights at Inter-City Bus Terminus in Lusaka after his landlord evicted him from the house he was renting in Misisi Township last week for failing to clear the K360 three-month rental arrears.
Mr Lungu told the Sunday Times in an interview in Lusaka recently that the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) where the tube was inserted in October, last year, referred him to Lusaka Trust Hospital for tests and an operation pegged at K490 as the UTH barium swallow machine had broken down.
A barium swallow is a radiographic (X-ray) examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract, specifically the pharynx (back of mouth and throat) and the esophagus (a hollow tube of muscle extending from below the tongue to the stomach).
“I cannot swallow food so I was operated on and this tube was inserted. However, the barium swallow machine at UTH broke down so I was referred to Lusaka Trust Hospital where K490 is required.
“I have failed to raise that money but while am also hoping that the barium swallow machine at UTH would be repaired, the landlord evicted me from his house, so I spent the past two days sleeping at the bus station,” he said.
Mr Lungu said he had no source of income as he was unemployed and could not work in his condition, adding that he had been depending on a ‘Good Samaritan’ during the past one year he had been in Lusaka while his siblings remained in Chipata.
Mr Lungu disclosed also that besides spending nights at Inter-City Bus Terminus, he sometimes goes for a day or two without food.
Mr Lungu was required to replace the syringe, valued at K5, every week but that he had been having difficulties to raise money for that apparatus, food and rentals.
He said efforts to seek assistance from the Lusaka Social Welfare proved futile as he was told that no money was available.