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Ethiopia: Hamlin Fistula Hospital
Obstetric fistula is a debilitating condition in which women are injured during several days of obstructed labor and often give birth to stillborn babies. They are left with long-term health problems, including chronic incontinence. Most suffer in pain and humiliation and many are stigmatized by their families and communities. While a delivery by caesarian section prevents obstetric fistula, in sub-Saharan Africa such medical procedures and prenatal care are often out of reach for rural women. Many women live with obstetric fistula for many years before seeking treatment at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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A post-operative fistula patient at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia rests in her bed. -
Women suffering from obstetric fistula often have nerve damage in their legs and can only walk with assistance. Post-operative patients at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia walk the grounds of the hospital after fistula surgery.
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Obstetric fistula patients talk at benches outside the main ward. The goal of Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is to provide a safe haven for patients to meet other women like themselves and hopefully, be cured of this preventable and correctable affliction.
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Nurse Helina Tadesse, under the watchful eye of Nurse's Aide Fatima, performs a urodynamic study on a post-operative fistula patient at the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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Operating theater staff prepare a patient who is to receive fistula surgery at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Obstetric fistula is a debilitating condition in which women injured in childbirth uncontrollably leak a trail of urine or feces. While a delivery by caesarian section prevents obstetric fistula, in sub-Saharan Africa such medical procedures and prenatal care are often out of reach for rural women.
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While fistula patients visit through the window, Nurse Almaz Deressa comforts a patient who came to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Somalia. The patient, 20 years old, was in labor for three days before she gave birth to a stillborn baby and suffers from vaginal fistula and drop foot. After only 24 days, she came to Hamlin Fistula Hospital for treatment.
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Residents of Desta Mender, a long-term rehabilitation center outside the capitol, work out in the physical therapy room on the grounds of the home for fistula patients who have had diversion surgery or must wear a stoma bag.
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Desta Mender educator Tedeste, teaches handy crafts like knitting, making baskets or embroidering shawls and business skills. Most of the students cannot read or write so she uses drawings to teach them about becoming good businesswomen. Desta Mender residents learn nutrition in class.
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Post and pre-operative fistula and diversion patients learn to embroider, read and write their own names and study nutrition in a class at Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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