Visit to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital

December 2004

My parents lived in Ethiopia for eight years before recently moving to Kenya.  When I last visited them 3 ½ years ago, they introduced me to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, an amazing, inspirational place founded by an Australian gynecologist, Dr. Catherine Hamlin, and her late husband to heal women suffering from the terrible childbirth injury, an obstetrical fistula.  She is the Mother Teresa of Africa and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Shortly after returning home, I posted a web page and wrote a column about the hospital and joined the board of the Fistula Foundation to support the hospital.  The good news is that we have raised millions of dollars, thanks largely to an incredible Op Ed by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, Alone and Ashamed, and an appearance on Oprah by Dr. Hamlin (click here for a transcript of the show, which brought Oprah and the audience to tears).

With the additional money, the hospital is expanding its facility in Addis Ababa, setting up five surgical centers around the country and building Desta Mender, a village for the women who cannot be healed (and therefore, in most cases, cannot return to their villages) to live out their days in peace and dignity.  To see pictures of Desta Mender, click here.

Me with Dr. Hamlin (in the center) with local board and staff members

A nurse with some of the patients

The hospital is taking care of this adorable orphan as it looks for a permanent home for her.  Her mother had a fistula, which was healed, but she subsequently died of AIDS

This woman’s story is not uncommon.  In addition to losing her child and getting a fistula, she had nerve damage from her obstructed labor.  Compounding this tragedy, for nearly a year (by her account; it was probably more she lay in bed in this fetal position, never moving, hoping that if she lay very still, the urine wouldn’t leak out (which it of course did).  As a result, she was crippled and unable to walk.  Some women have lain in bed for up to 10 years!

The hospital has a physical therapy/rehabilitation unit because it cannot operate on a woman until her legs are straightened and she can walk once again.  It can be a long and painful process – look at her withered leg.  The nurse is using a heat lamp to warm the tissue and stretch her limbs.

This is the pre- and post-op ward.  The surgical ward is through the door in the back.  Note how immaculate it is.

This woman was doubly lucky.  While she suffered a fistula during childbirth, the baby lived and her husband stayed with her – both of which are quite rare.  He likely stayed because the baby lived and this was not their first child.  Usually, women suffer fistulas during their first childbirth and the baby dies, in which case the husband typically abandons his wife.

A patient with Sister Ruth Kennedy, who helps run the hospital

(From left to right) My father-in-law, a Fistula Foundation board member, his wife, me, my wife, my mother-in-law, my mom and my brother-in-law

Two of my daughters at Desta Mender, the community the hospital built for the women that it could not cure.  They need lifetime medical supervision, so they now have a place to live the rest of their lives in peace.  To see more pictures of Desta Mender, click here.