In the year 2004, Margaret a farmer from Mweiga, Nyeri County had great joy and was excited to bring a life into the world, her first born. She had carried her pregnancy to term, a smooth pregnancy it was, as she recalls. So when she began experiencing labour pains, her husband Simon checked her into the hospital and after 6 hours of excruciating labor pain, they were blessed with a bouncing baby boy weighing 3.1Kg.
“All was however not well, I noticed stool coming out and I could not even control gas. It came out with a loud noise especially when I sat for a long period and the worst was there was nothing I could do” She exclaims as she joyously smiles to her other baby who is almost 8 months.
Margaret, in addition to being a farmer in her village in Mweiga, she was an active member of the community. She was involved in church activities, her children school activities and different ‘chamas’ meetings. For her, meetings were a must to attend to contribute to the society. She however, did not let her condition affect her way of living and interactions. She told her husband Simon what she was going through and he understood. Margaret later got three other children in hospital, but her condition was not fixed.
A year went by and 2 more thereafter she resorted to living with the condition not knowing whether she would ever get help. She however found comfort in the support her husband provided and devised a mechanism for coping with her condition. She narrates that over time, she realized that to minimize stool she’d have to eat minimal. For the gas she practiced for a while but figured out that the gas builds up when she sits for long. She decided that when she attends any form of meeting she will only sit for a minimum 15 minutes and stand up to let the air out without noise and that is how she managed to live with Fistula for 15 years.
In 2019, when she saw an advertisement of a fistula camp on television, she told the husband that she would like to seek treatment. Her husband agreed and brought her to the hospital. She was screened and told to go home and wait for a call on when she would attend the hospital for treatment. Margaret says she had faith that she would be treated, she acknowledges that the God she serves was greater than her problems. So accompanied by the husband, they went home but on waking up on Sunday morning, they received a call from the hospital to come for admission on the same day. She went back and got admitted. She received free surgery on Monday, 28th February, 2019. “I am so happy I have been fixed. I want to thank Safaricom and you Flying Doctors for making me well. May God bless you, and to any woman who is suffering I would like to tell you that treatment is there do not hide, come and get treated” She exclaims and continues “I will be an ambassador, if I hear of any woman with fistula now I know where to send them”
