Muthoni called it"the most amazing thing to happen in years" when she was finally able to use the toilet normally for the first time in 13 years.
Her painful fistula journey began after she gave birth to her first child, with the assistance of an untrained midwife.
"I experienced a tear on the third day as I was using the toilet but I didn't think it was anything serious. I went to the hospital and it eventually healed," she said.
Not long after, she was unable to hold her stool, especially when she was unwell. Not knowing she had developed fistula, the new mom thought she was the one who didn't know how to hold her stool.
Muthoni also began passing air which people assumed was farting. This affected her social life as she avoided going to public spaces.
In 2016, she got pregnant with her second child and started having problems with her partner.
"My partner told me that I was always smelling bad and needed to do something about it," she said. Finally, they parted ways.
She gave birth at Kenyatta National Hospital in 2017 when a doctor told her that she had a fistula.
"They had to explain it to me because I did not know what it was," she said.
Muthoni delivered her child but she wasn't treated for fistula and the problem became worse.
Since adult diapers were expensive, Muthoni resorted to using her baby's diapers or pieces of cloth and T-shirts.
PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE
Every year, an estimated 3,000 Kenyan women develop fistula and to date, at least 30,000 are living with the condition classified as a disability.
Obstetric fistula is a severe injury which occurs mostly due to prolonged obstructed labour. It is common t women who deliver without skilled attendants.
It creates an opening between the urinary tract and vagina, or between the vagina as the colon/rectum. This causes uncontrolled, continuous leakage of urine and/or faecal matter.
In two weeks, more than 600 women turned up at the fistula medical camp at KNH for treatment.
"Fistula has a lot of consequences. Women who develop it leak urine, sometimes stool, which has a lot of social complications," KNH acting chief executive John Kinuthia said.
The camp started on June 27 and ended on Friday when453 women were screener operated on. Another 30 have been booked for reconstructive surgery.
The condition is treatable through corrective surgery available in a few hospitals. Only eight surgeons are active in fistula work.
Surgery costs about Sh75,000 at KNH and as much as Sh500,000 at the Nairobi Hospital.
Those covered by NHIF can receive treatment for free at Kenyatta, said Khisa Weston, a fistula expert at the hospital.
She was among the surgeons who treated women during the camp.
Kinuthia said the injury is preventable, adding that it had been eliminated in the developed world more than 100 years ago.
"Prevention involves by skilled birth attendance and timely availability of emergency caesarean section when labour gets obstructed," he said.
To eliminate fistula, she called for more facilities and specialist surgeons and nurses.
Fistula can also be caused by rape and gang rape.
Edited by R.Wamochie
