Hellish life as mother, three children’s legs amputated

For Ruth Wairimu, happiness is an alien term. The 38-year-old-woman is only familiar with sorrow.

Wairimu suffers from condition she doesn’t understand that has seen her legs amputated later in life to save her but consigning her to a wheelchair.

Ruth Wairimu claims she was born with a strange disease that paralysed her legs. Three years after marriage doctors told her it was too late to reverse her condition; that her legs did not have enough bone mass to support them.

She was further informed that to prevent further spread of the condition to other parts of the body, her legs had to be amputated. The 2006 surgical operation lasted almost six hours.

“This experience has changed my life for worse,” she says.

In 2010, Wairimu delivered her first son, Victor Karanja who was healthy at age 14 when he began developing complications.

 Doctors would tell her it was too late to conduct effective treatment son. Karanja’s legs were deformed hence the inability to walk. Currently, the boy is at Kijabe Mission Hospital for amputation. Doctors say the condition is hereditary describing the condition as congenital deformity.

Unfortunately, Wairimu is unable to raise money for the operation.

“They want more than half a million to conduct an operation.” Luckily her church is a fundraising to foot the bill.

The second born, Diana Wangari born in 2014, has also weak legs though she may appear healthy.  The legs have been weakened due to the same condition her mother is suffering from.

The last born, a two year-old-girl called Melvin Murathu was born with the same condition and had to undergo amputation.  

Wairimu’s sorrow is compounded by diabetes and the burden of caring for the three disabled children.

“These are not normal children so you have to change their clothes, take them to the toilet, and bathe them and so on and so on”.

Her husband Charles Mwangi is jobless so they cannot afford to hire a domestic worker.

 “Most of the house chores related to caring of the children are done by me and my husband,” she says of Mwangi describing him as “very supportive”.

Ruth Wairimu is grateful to her church PCEA church which has provided her with capital to start a shop where she also sells self-made liquid toilet soap.

The church bought her Car which, unfortunately, she had to sell to offset debts.

 “I could not sustain my disabled children, leave a lone fueling the car,” she explains.

Wairimu lives in a Sh15000-a-month-house. Apart from struggling to raise the rent, she is also working hard to put food on the table.

 “It is only that my landlord has been an understanding lady, otherwise I could have been ejected from the house long time ago.”

Despite her strong Christian background, Wairimu says she is getting suicidal

 “I don’t understand why God has allowed all these problems to happen to me and not any other person,” she regrets.

KTN medical correspondent Dr Mercy Korir says Wairimu could have been affected by Type 2 diabetes which is also genetic. “If she failed to reach out for treatment early enough, then the condition could have reached a chronic stage” she explains.