The Hungary-trained general surgeon/general medical practitioner had no intention of helping to inflict mumbo-jumbo on any of his patients! He had no choice when a Jehovah’s Witness mom presented with a child who was severely short of blood …
Tweny-one years ago a surgeon broiling with rage and contempt visited a herbalist in Lagos. Hungarian-trained General Surgeon and Medical Director, Lindabel Medical Centre, Surulere, Lagos, David Abia-Okon stumbled upon an advertisement in the May 21, 1998 edition of The Guardian newspaper, the source of his irritation. The advert claimed that a certain herbal potion was capable of restoring blood to normal levels within days.
‘What did these illiterates know about erythropoiesis?’ he wondered (erythropoiesis is the complex process by which red blood cells are produced within the body).
The herbalist, a highly educated accountant, Olajuwon Okubena, skillfully pacified the irate doctor and handed him a keg of the herbal potion then known as Jubi Formula (now marketed as Jobelyn) to try on his patients. Dr. Abia-Okon unwillingly accepted the challenge but conveniently forgot the keg under a table in his clinic. He had no intention of helping to inflict mumbo-jumbo on any of his patients!
Jehovah’s Witness Child
Then entered a severely ill child with sickle cell, the daughter of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Witnesses would not, under any circumstances, take blood transfusion – in obedience to a biblical injunction as interpreted by the sect. After vainly attempting to convince the parent to accept blood for the child, Abia-Okon remembered the potion with the ridiculous claims of swift erythropoiesis.
‘With a PCV of 2.9 g/dl the child was clearly on the brink,’ recalls the doctor.
Since the mother would hear nothing of blood transfusion, there was no harm in testing Jubi Formula on the hapless child …
Eleven days later, mother and child returned to thank the doctor. The child was no longer prostrate with weakness but prancing energetically around.
‘I congratulated the mother for finally conceding to blood transfusion for the child.’ Abia-Okon says.
‘Me? Take blood? Never!’ the woman retorted, rolling had arm over her head several times and snapping her fingers to reinforce the taboo. ‘It was the herbal potion you gave us – and see, the child has recovered!’
Within eleven days, Vivian’s PCV jumped from 2.9g/dl to 5.3g/dl. The Formula had restored the child to life!
Since then, Dr. Abia-Okon has travelled all over Nigeria, holding seminars with fellow GPs on the incredible special phytoceutical called Jobelyn. His SCD patients, expectant mothers and others with debilitating conditions are routinely placed on Jobelyn not just for blood building but for immune fortification as well.