Hawa Samai Brings Hope to Women Affected by Fistula
By Ibrahim Sorie Koroma
Senior Health Promotion Officer –HEP/MoH
Betty Samai, a Fistula survivor has urged other women who are suffering from the disease to seek care as early as possible and that the disease is largely preventable, curable and treatable. Betty made the appeal in Freetown on May 23rd while giving testimony of how she battled with obstetric fistula and recovered with the help of healthcare professionals.
While narrating her ordeal, Betty explained that she had Fistula in 2005 while delivering her third child at home in her village and she was faced with prolonged and obstructed delivery, adding that she had to struggle in pain until one of her sisters who visited her advised her to go to the nearby health facility to seek medical care.
Upon her visit to the Peripheral Health Units (PHU), she explained that she was referred to the Bo Government Hospital, where she was told that the baby had gone to the bladder, causing some blockage and that it was fistula. “I had never had of a disease like that before. I had to cry upon hearing this because I knew it was something serious and that I was going to die,” Betty explained in a crying mood.
She further explained that at Bo Government Hospital, the surgery was undertaken to get the baby out but was later referred to Freetown, where she had to undergone multiple surgeries as she had multiple tear to her bladder which complicated her situation for healthcare professionals. “Finally, all the three surgeries were done, rehabilitated and I was reintegrated into the community”. She said.
While explaining the role played by her husband, she subbed for a moment and cried with tears, stating that she was abandoned by her husband in all of her struggles with the disease; a condition she did not invited but came as a result of giving birth to their third child. “At a time like this, I needed him most, but he was nowhere to be found”….. She continued…”Worst of it while in the hospital, I heard he had married another wife. It was as if my world had crashed – dejected and I had nowhere to return to,” said Samai. She further said that even her friends and some community members who tend to be interested in her condition, later started to ridicle and laugh at her. “I was stigmatized when I returned home after my first surgery,” she added.
She ended by heaping praises on the healthcare professionals who saw her through from Bo onto Freetown as they exhibited their professionalism and were very supportive. She also thanked God and her family for seeing her through in all her struggle with fistula.
Obstetric fistula which normally occurs during child birthis a serious childbirth injury thatoccurs with prolonged, obstructed labor which sometimes causes a hole (fistula) to form between thevaginaand either thebladderorrectum, or sometimes both. A condition which causes leakage of urine in women after birth but it’s largely preventable, treatable and curable with early detection and healthcare seeking.
