Succour for hopeless women

   

 One of the patients after her surgery

For victims of obstetric fistula, commonly known as VVF, it’s time to smile again. For these group of women who spend their days in extreme pain, and living with the physical psychological trauma of being forsaken by family, friends and the society, the Engender Health Organization, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Kwara State government are determined to bring joy to their tortured lives.
Obstetric fistula is a disorder that involves the female genital tract, mainly the bladder and the vagina. 


This is commonly caused by prolonged obstructed labour in poorly managed patients. The commonest cause of the prolonged labour is cephalopelvic disproportion as a result of contracted pelvis from teenage pregnancy. Similarly, another risk factor is genital mutilation, a common cultural practice in Africa.

Victims of fistula experience uncontrollable leakage of urine. Therefore, they have to resort to the use of nappies, clothes among other absorbents in order to remain clean. And this is when their trauma begins,
However, it is disheartening to note that majority of the victims lose their babies due to prolonged labour, and on getting out of the hospital, they are faced with stigmatization by the society including their families in most cases. Statistics have shown that 80 to 90 percent of patients with fistula were divorced by their husbands who put them in the predicament and abandoned by their families at the detriment of their ill health, leaving them with no option than to seek unorthodox care.

Many have lived with the problem for many years without them getting solution. And unfortunately, there is the misconception by many people that the problem is as a result of affliction from witchcraft.
Also, it is believed that due to the level of the society’s awareness as regards obstetric fistula, the victims are treated as outcasts and abandoned while majority see it as a communicable disease and fear being infected.   
However, it has been proved lately that the causative factor of the problem is early marriage. It has also been discovered that some women who marry at the appropriate time in life also develop obstetric fistula after having giving birth severally. This, therefore, implies that the problem does not respect age.

Stakeholders are of the view that a lot needs to be done on the part of governments at state and federal levels to ensure that obstetric fistula victims are given adequate medical attention and for people to be more informed about the problem, causes, its implication on the victims’ health and the consequences of abandoning them to face the problem alone. They are also of the opinion that government should ensure that adequate facilities are provided in various hospitals to be able to cater for the victims once it was discovered that they have the problem in order to correct the anomaly.

But some bright rays seem to be appearing in the horizon. Recently, succour came the way of the victims in Kwara State, as the Engender Health Organization, sponsored by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the Kwara State Government, performed free surgeries on no fewer than 11 patients with the problem. Two patients out of the 13 that registered for the programme were offered medical advice as their problems required no surgical operation while the last person was not fit for operation due to her health status.
The free health programme, which is a weeklong activity, had the victims picked from across all the local government areas of the state with one of them from Osun State. Meanwhile, before the commencement of the operation proper, the patients were counselled in order to prepare their mind and be informed about what needed to be done for the problem not to recur.

Commenting on the exercise, the state commissioner for Health, Alhaji Kayode  Issa, stressed that due to the nature of the complication, it required support from both government and the stakeholders to ensure that adequate attention is given to it in order to ameliorate the sufferings of the patients.
Issa who noted that Governor Abdulfatahi Ahmed led administration placed priority on the citizen’s health, added that it would not relent in further collaborating with various health organizations to provide qualitative healthcare delivery services to the people of the state.

Calling on other patients to come out from their hideouts so as to be able to benefit from such gesture, he said the programme would no doubt assist the less privileged who could not afford the bill for such operation.
Lamenting the stigmatization the victims are subjected to in the society, Issa called for a change of attitude from husbands, families and friends of the victims, urging them to always show them love rather than abandoning them at that difficult time of their lives. The commissioner who appreciated the gesture of the organization also expressed joy that the experts would during their stay in Kwara train some doctors in the state to be able to carry out such operations in future.

Speaking, the organization’s Team Leader, Dr. Isah Adamu, said that the ultimate objective of their visit was to save the victims from further ‘torture’ as a result of the complication and to train the medical personnel on ground who will carry on after them. Adamu who is also a fistula surgeon, said before, obstetric fistula was referred to as a northern problem, stating that when the team got to the Eastern part of the country, it was discovered that it was a Nigerian problem.

The team leader said that obstetric fistula does not only occur in women who marry earlier than expected, stressing that there are some who got married at 35 and still had the problem after about four to five deliveries. He therefore advised pregnant women to always register in good and well-equipped hospitals. Adamu expressed his displeasure at some husbands who abandon their wives after having such predicament and noted that the fact that they lost their babies at delivery was enough punishment for them which required people’s compassion, support and care.

Adamu pledged that the team would return to the state next month to continue the surgeries for other patients, saying that there are numerous ways USAID could be of assistance to the state. Also speaking, the Chief Medical Director, Sobi Specialist Hospital where the surgeries were performed, Dr. Stephen Arigidi, described the programme as very successful. He noted that medical personnel at the hospital also benefited from the gesture in terms of knowledge acquired.

He commended the state government for providing the necessary support for the programme to be successful with provision of the hospital theatre, accommodation and feeding for the patients at no cost.