30-year-old body-building enthusiast Ronny Rono requires life-saving surgery after developing strange swelling in his arms and chest in what is suspected to be Synthol injection.
Rono is bedridden and rarely gets out of bed. When he does, he cannot look at the mirror without breaking down.
Since June 2016, the orphan from Bureti constituency has been relying on his aunt and cousins to feed, bathe and even clothe him, reports Standard.
“The condition began with a small swelling in my right arm and when I went to a private hospital in Kericho town, I was just given painkillers and informed that I required surgery to remove the tumor,” said Rono.
In April 2017, a year after his right hand began swelling, the condition spread to the left hand.
“Ironically, I couldn’t feel much pain but it reached an alarming level last year when the swelling reached my chest. I underwent biopsy at the Kericho county hospital but the doctors couldn’t determine what I am suffering from and yet the swelling and the numbness persisted and is now spreading to my neck,” said Rono.
“The condition makes me feel like I am carrying a lot of weight which my backbone cannot support and that is why I am always feeling fatigued, I have to lie in bed,” he added.
Rono is also experiencing difficulty in breathing.
According to Dr Philemon Letting of Kericho Fig Tree hospital, Rono’s condition is a suspected case of Synthol injection.
But Rono denied that he had such an injection during his bodybuilding days at a gym in Nairobi.
“I don’t have any recollection of receiving the Synthol injection. I was nonetheless drunk most of the time during my bodybuilding days and I don’t have a memory of everything I might have done,” Standard quotes Rono.
Due to his condition, his wife abandoned him taking with her their five-year-old daughter.
“After I suffered the health complications, I had no option but to quit my job last year at Elimu Sacco where I worked as a junior employee at the registry. This means I couldn’t afford to fend for my family and my wife abandoned me,” he said.
Rono’s cousin Hilda Chepkemoi, who accompanies him during his frequent visits to hospital says they need at least Sh3 million to restore Rono’s shape through plastic and reconstructive surgery.
“We have since spent all the money we had going from one hospital to another,” she said.
“I pray that I will get healed. Go back to work and be in a position to win back my family. I really miss my daughter,” said Rono.
