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Meet Debora From Angola

Debora lives in a tiny Angolan village quite far from any emergency medical services. In 2008, she was in labor with her fourth child for nearly a week before her uncle finally brought her to a hospital.

By that time, her uterus had ruptured and her baby, delivered via C-section, had died. The difficult labor also left a fistula between her bladder and cervix, causing her to leak urine constantly. All of Debora’s other children had also died shortly after childbirth, and her husband finally abandoned her too.

Luckily, Debora found our partner site Centro Evangelico de Medicina de Lubango (Evangelical Medical Center of Lubango, or CEML) in Angola. Once she arrived, her fistula repair surgery turned out to be much more difficult than doctors expected – in addition to a fistula, Debora had a large cyst and also had to be treated for schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms that is common in many parts of Africa.

Her fistula was so complex that three surgeries were required, but today Debora is healed and no longer leaks urine. Our partners at CEML report that following her surgery, Debora returned to her parents’ home, and she is hopeful about her new life.