Living with a Seeping Wound in a Small Ugandan Village

I saw a most sad sight today in a village of Uganda. A woman of 20 who I thought was a girl of 12 living in a very dirty house. She has osteomyelitis, which is infection of the bone, and a seeping leg wound…

 

It took us 5 health workers an hour to plan a strategy for her rehab..starting with antibiotics.

 

She has lived most of her life with her leg contracted which is so painful for her so our PT (Physical Therapist) gauged if he can free it. Physical Therapists help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility.

 

On the good side she has her mind and her upper arms are good.

 

So we plan to bring her to our friends at Katalemwa Cheshire Home for Rehabilition Services for two months to stay for physical therapy, meet other girls and use a wheelchair to get around – all under MEND funding.

 

We planned some ramps at her house and her grandmother was able to wheel her to an outside toilet in a loaned house.

We had another cute 3 year old to see at a kindergarten..Solomon’s Choice… born with no knee joint and with a prosthesis we funded.

 

But the honest truth, for her future walking and marriage, her leg needs amputation above the knee. Then she can get a knee joint limb AK Above Knee.

 

Counselling the mother was our task ..so she and her husband must decide on this harrowing decision…

 

Can a mother easily agree to her daughter’s amputation…as is the right thing to do?

 

30 years ago I advised a Priest guardian, of a children’s home in Kampala, to do the same operation for one of their children…and that girl went on to become top basketball player!

 

You see marriage for a woman with a prosthesis that could be explained as a car accident is far easier than a major deformity….and at age 3 …this can be corrected without the child ever knowing.

 

What would you do?