For years, the 24-year-old Joshua Kwakye has been bedridden after a hit-and-run driver crushed him.

He struggled to do things for himself because every movement of his body was a painful ordeal. And only surgery could give him a semblance of normal life again. He would go days without food and lived in a basement with no proper place of convenience. For Joshua, all hope was lost.

“Every day I’m going through pain, it’s very bad, bad. I always cry and all I do is to pray to God,” he said.

After JoyNews’ Judith Awortwi-Tandoh reported on Joshua’s story, JoyNews was contacted by a philanthropist who volunteered to pay for surgery for Joshua, under conditions of anonymity.

After several checkups at the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital, Neurosurgeon, Dr. Mawuli Ametepe explained the extent of damage to Joshua’s spine.

“He has a problem with controlling his urine and his feaces. The scans basically reveal a fracture in one of his vertebral bodies.”

Dr. Ametepe further highlighted that chances for Joshua to walk again were slim.

“The alignment of the spine is not good, surgery will realign the spine and surgery will also take care of any form of pressure on the tail end of the spinal cord as I mentioned, we do not think that the recovery of his nerves is possible looking at the long duration in which he has waited,” the Neurosurgeon said.

This however did not discourage Joshua nor his donor. An initial payment of GH¢20,000 was made to the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital for commencement of the surgery. After spending a week in the hospital, Joshua finally underwent a spinal surgery.

Not only that, but through donations to the Wipe Your Tears Foundation, which took up Joshua’s basic care, he was moved into a new apartment. JoyNews’ Judith Awortwi-Tandoh visited his residence a week after his relocation.

“Everything went good, the doctors and nurses were very nice. I’m much excited now I don’t feel the pain like the way I felt in the past, I’m happy, now I have hope that I will soon walk. I’ll give thanks to almighty God the creator for opening this big door for me and secondly to Wipe Your Tears Foundation for the support and love.

“Thirdly I’ll give thanks to JoyNews and the Multimedia. May God really bless you all and may God bless the person who donated for my surgery.”

In all, a total of GH¢32,160 was paid for Joshua’s surgery.