By Wisdom Ngwira:
Like any married woman, 38-year-old Loveness Nyasulu was overjoyed when she realised that she had conceived. The news meant she could now have her fourth child.
“I was really very happy when I got my fourth pregnancy. As a family, we had planned that this should be my last pregnancy as we already had three children.
“You can imagine the excitement that engulfed me for the possibility of finally having a last born child,” recalls Nyasulu.
Nine months later, Nyasulu who hails from Chidungu village in Traditional Authority M’nyanja in Kasungu district gave birth to a baby boy through caesarian. The Nyasulu family were overwhelmed to finally welcome the baby boy.
But this pleasure was however short lived when the new mother started experiencing strange things.
“Immediately after I gave birth to the child through caesarian, I discovered that I had lost some senses especially when it came to urinating and defecating.
“I could not even know when I was due to go for urination or to defecation, I could only notice flies and bad odour all over me and that I was covered by feces,” explained Nyasulu.
“I started thinking that someone had bewitched me because of the new baby. With this in mind, I convinced myself that my problem could well be handled by traditional means.
“We then went to various traditional healers to seek help but it all ended in vain as the problem continued,” explained Loveness.
Facing stigma
Loveness says she could not figure out what was going on and day in and day out she was crying because she could not sit around her friends.
“It reached a very extreme point where I could not go to church, funerals or any social gathering because I was ashamed as people made fun of me and started to disassociate themselves from me.
“Whenever I wanted to interact with my fellow women, few could accept me as they thought I was an unhygienic person,” she narrates.
Loneness’s husband Maliko Nyasulu recalls the stigma he faced because of his wife’s condition.
“My fellow men mocked me as to why I was still staying with a woman who defecates and smells bad on her own. Some suggested that I leave Loveness and marry another woman.
“Had it been that I was not strong enough, honestly the family could have collapsed way back. It was really the lowest point of our lives as a family,” said Nyasulu.
The intervention
After almost exhausting every local means to end the problem, Loveness and her husband Maliko reluctantly decided to try the ‘last road not taken’-the hospital.
“Realizing that we were just losing a lot of our hard-earned resources in search of a cure, we decided to seek medical intervention,” Loveness narrates.
She said with the support of her husband, they approached their Health Surveillance Assistant (HSA) Lucky Matemba.
“After I had interacted with the patient and her husband, I suggested that it could be fistula disease as all the signs and symptoms were clear.
“But since matters of this nature are beyond my control, I then referred her to a Fistula disease coordinator at Mnyanja health centre so that she could take up the matter further,” said Matemba.
Still feeling reluctant and hopeless, Loveness was referred to Violet Vyata, a Fistula disease coordinator at Mnyanja health centre who immediately referred her to Kasungu district hospital.
“Upon arrival at Kasungu district hospital, we were promptly told that it was fistula and that there was urgent need for us to be taken for specialist Fistula treatment at Bwaila hospital,” she said.
Hope restored
For Loveness, the bumpy road from Kasungu to Lilongwe looked smooth. At last she had regained hope that perhaps this could be the last resort where she could get her much needed healing.
Accompanied by her husband’s sister in-law, she arrived at Bwaila hospital around 4 pm and was immediately given a bed so that treatment begins.
“For two months, I was being treated for fistula and long at last, I could feel that the involuntary fecal and urine discharges stopped. I could feel the happiness all through my body. Long at last, my dignity had been restored as a woman,” happily explained Loveness.
Treatable condition
Fistula treatment specialist at Bwaila Hospital, Dr Mervice Nakwanje says if diagnosed early, fistula is treatable.
Nakwanje said that fistula is preventable when women seek treatment from the hospital first before seeking treatment from traditional healers during pregnancy.
“Women should not get worried of fistula disease because it is preventable and government hospitals are able to treat more, especially at Bwaila hospital.
“This mostly happens during the time of giving birth if the child inside has grown bigger than the outlet, during birth a child may panic in a process of trying to come out and this may cause fistula disease.
“Women are encouraged to rush to the hospital to seek help than to rush to traditional healers to avoid losing the unborn children and risking their lives as well,” Nakwanje said.
She added that some women are suffering from fistula disease because they give birth whilst young and there is need for civic education amongst young girls in order to avoid cases of fistula in the country.
Nakwanje bemoaned increased incidents of discrimination on fistula patients saying discrimineted in some hospitals in the country. She urged fistula patients to seek help in public hospitals where patients are treated with respect.
“Discrimination to people who are suffering from fistula is very common, in order to avoid this challenge, women that are suffering from the disease they should go and seek treatment from government hospitals where patients receive fair treatment at a free cost,” she said.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Adrian Chikumbe said as a ministry they are encouraging women and girls to go to the nearest hospitals in their communities to do a checkup regularly even if they don’t see the signs and symptoms of fistula.
“It is very important to know early stages of the disease so that it should be treated fast to avoid some damages that may occur in women due to the disease,” Chikumbe said.
Long at last, Loveness can now have her dignity fully restored as a woman through early diagnosis and treatment of fistula disease.
