Nimali

Nimali says she is 20, looks more like 16, but her obstetric history puts her more like at 30. Her first child was born severely disabled and died soon after birth. 6 further pregnancies ensued with only 2 live children. Her husband beat her so badly that she miscarried one of her pregnancies. On her last pregnancy, she tried to deliver in the village with the Traditional Birth Attendant, but the baby was stuck. She eventually got to a hospital where they did a c/s and a hysterectomy, but the baby had died. During this operation, they tied off both of her ureters, meaning the urine could not flow from the kidneys. She was leaking urine all the time. She went to Nairobi, where they put a catheter in and told her to come back later. Three months later she returned, but the fistula doctors were no longer there. She stayed this way for 6 years. She heard of the fistula programme at Selian and got on the bus with her mother. Unfortunately, the Bus driver was drunk and they had a terrible accident on the way to Arusha. Unbelievably, Nimali finally arrived and was operated on by Dr. Andrew and has begun a slow recovery.