Zenabas Story
Claudia Leimgruber-Neukom (a midwife and co-founder of whi) tells of a young woman’s suffering which she experienced firsthand. Not only did Zenaba’s child die during her difficult labour, but she also had a complicated fistula. No doctor in Sudan could help her. After two years of great physical suffering, Zenaba was able to go to the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, where she was healed with three operations. Zenaba was able to return to Sudan after two years. Today, she is busy caring for and counselling other women who have received fistula surgery.
Shushans Story
Shushan was married off at the age of nine and became pregnant at fourteen. Due to hard physical labour at an early age, Shushan had a weak bone structure and had developed a deformed pelvis. In a small hut in the Ethiopian mountains, far away from a hospital, Shushan had a stillbirth after five days of indescribable suffering. The doctors at the Fistula Hospital ascertained that she did not have a bladder anymore. A “substitute” bladder was made from a piece of intestine. Because of this and because Shushan still needs medical care, she had to stay near the hospital.
Today, Shushan lives at Desta Mender, a farm adjoined to the hospital, where women like her grow vegetables and tend cows and chickens. She has learned to read, write and do basic math.
Simeesh Segayes Story
Simeesh Segayes got a fistula at 19. Her husband deserted her. Because of her body odour, her parents set up a separate hut for her, but brought her food and water. Simeesh Segayes was wasting away in the hut – alone, ashamed, helpless and confused. She hardly took food, because the more she ate, the more excretion flowed freely down her legs.
After two years, her parents finally were able to collect enough money to drive her to the Fistula Hospital. The doctors there are trying to restore her physically first, because she is strongly emaciated. Her legs are shriveled and permanently deformed; she can neither stretch nor move them.Mahelets Story
Mahelet gets pregnant at 13. The child dies during the 7-day labour. Mahelet’s life hangs on a thin thread. Nine days later, her family brings her to the hospital, where the doctors diagnose a rectal and urinary fistula. Mahelet stays in the hospital for only four days, because it is expensive and no-one can really help her. She returns home.
A year later, the church pays for the five-day voyage to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. There, the doctors see that Mahelet no longer has a bladder. Mahelet will not be able to return home. She receives a stoma through her abdominal wall, so that the urine can flow into a bag. She now lives at Desta Mender. She no longer has contact to her husband and family.Enatanesh's Story
Enatanesh was brought to the nearest hospital after her first child was stillborn, traveling for five days. They couldn’t help her there, so the weakened fifteen-year-old walked back home. She suffered greatly from the incontinence, the inflamed urinary tract and the stench which shut her out from society. Five months later, she traveled to the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa with her uncle. She received surgery, but her injuries were so severe that further surgery is required. She will be at the hospital for several months.
