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The Patients
Means
of arrival at the hospital:
Enormous journeys are often made by the patients,
sometimes taking months to arrive at the hospital. They are not welcomed on
public transport because they smell.
Sometimes patients are weak when they arrive. They are
put in accommodation and given a diet that restores them to a reasonable state
of health.
These distraught women arrive by bus, lorry and on
foot, often having been abandoned by their families. They arrive to be greeted
with love and affection, often in a very confused and anxious state - certainly
dirty, and unclean because of their condition.
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Now clean and feeling welcomed, each one has been given a new blanket to ward off the chill of the
high plateau and already showing hope in their faces. |
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It seems TV is important here as well!
Few sit down so as to avoid soiling their clean gowns. |
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No matter where in the world - girls
love having their hair done. |
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A wonderful and rare sight - a mother
who, in spite of her fistula injury, was fortunate to have a live baby.
She awaits her surgery. |
Restoration
to health:
Generally, those patients without complications are
restored to health completely in 3 weeks. They leave hospital in a new
dress with some food and
sufficient money to get home. They are also given their medical records
and encouraged to get to a hospital next time they become pregnant.
Every other day, on average, 7 women walk out of the
hospital in Addis Ababa cured. |
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A patient expressing her gratitude to
Dr Andrew Browning
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A patient on her final day in hospital.
Cured, smiling and awaiting her husband to collect her. |
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Many require physio to regain their muscle tone after
sitting on their legs for months and sometimes years. |
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