Buoyed Angel’s By love

Ann Ngugi [PHOTOS: WILBERFORCE OKWIRI/STANDARD]

Despite her battle with life’s waves and being a mother to a hydrocephalic daughter, KTN’s  Anne Ngugi’s spirit remains high. She spoke to Gardy Chacha

She has surmounted stiff hurdles, gone through a life riddled with intermittent emotions, listened to critics and faltered, but in every instance, she got back to full flight.

When she’s reading news for the 7pm KTN Leo bulletin, her poise and calm voice effectively masks her heavily laden life’s experiences. Through it all, she has had happy moments and times of spell in equal measure.

Anne Ngugi is a woman with a fighting spirit, resilience and determination to be the best parent and a good mother to her son and daughter.

When we knocked on her gate, she swiftly ushered us in to the comfort of her home. As we sat through the interview peeling every layer to get a clear image of the anchor’s story, we got to interact with her lovable out-of-set character.

Wrong perception

 “As you can see I am just human; a mother to my children, a daughter to my parents and a friend to my friends,” she said buoyantly. “Society has a wrong perception of anchors. We are not superhuman for even God knows how vulnerable we all are to life and its many temptations.”

Anne is not afraid to admit that she has made mistakes.

She says: “I was raised by a religious mother who tried to understand my inherent fizzical nature and would get me back on the right track. I was really stubborn; but life has been gracious and I can for sure attest that I’ve learnt and changed where possible.”

For eleven years, Anne has graced our TV screens and many will remember her trademark Spanglish short hair, white grin and Swahili vocals that packaged the news with an aura of sensuality.

As a single parent, she cares for her children but unlike many mothers, what makes her teem with motherhood zest is the fact that her firstborn was born with congenital hydrocephalus; a condition defined by excess levels of fluids in a child’s brain, severely increasing the head’s size.

“I was honestly shocked. I had attended my antenatal clinics and numerous scans were taken but doctors didn’t detect any anomaly with the baby; her head-size was within normal, her liver, kidneys, heart and everything else were normal,” she says.

“When the doctor brought her out, I saw a twitch on their faces. They were clearly astonished and when they showed me my baby, I instantly knew that something was seriously amiss.”

Angel, her daughter, had a uniquely huge head compared to a normal newborn’s.

Were it not for her loving parents who cushioned her with care and Godly advice, she would have stressed her way into depression.

For close to three months, Anne grappled with the prospects of being a mother to a hydrocephalus daughter but eventually accepted that her daughter had the debilitating condition. What lay ahead was for her to seek proper medication to arrest her daughter’s head from constantly bulging.

Research papers

Anne set out on a quest to know more about hydrocephalus, reading volumes of journals, research papers and scientific publications. Meanwhile, she had Angel fitted with a shunt one month after she was born following her doctor’s prescription. The gadget was supposed to drain off the excess fluid forming in Angel’s cranium, but it malfunctioned after only two weeks.

Frustrated and broke, she followed a friend’s advice and went to Kenyatta National Hospital to get a cheaper one, which still shambled after a few weeks. She was left desolate with no ability to attend to her daughter’s medical needs, but she still kept her faith.

“I would measure Angel’s head size regularly like the doctor advised and frown at the mere fact that my head was way smaller than that of my baby,” she says movingly.

She sought time off from work and was granted permission to be away to attend to her daughter at Kijabe, from where she was directed to a children’s hospital in Uganda. It seemed a long distance travelling to Uganda. At the same time she was apprehensive since her job demanded almost constant presence at work. However, she resolved to give the expedition her full attention if it was the only way she could get permanent help for her daughter.

This time round, Anne was lucky as Angel underwent a successful surgery that arrested the condition. Unfortunately, Angel’s head size couldn’t be reduced since the skull had grown and formed sutures. It was then that she found true reprieve throughout the odyssey to get help for Angel.

Music career

Away from her job in the office as the regional and features editor in Nairobi, Anne spends time bonding with her children at home. She is contemplating picking on music as a parallel career and pastime interest.

Her advice to other women with a history similar to hers is for them to keenly listen to their hearts and minds, for it could guard them against possible mishaps.

Her mantra: “Every time you go through the darkness of a valley, when you emerge from it, you emerge a stronger being.”

Anne knows that even though her daughter was born with a condition she didn’t expect, she has been a blessing in her life; the wind beneath her wings; a reason to keep living  — a true Angel.