Obstetric fistula: Smell of painful motherhood

Dr John Wachira performing fistula surgery on Ngurany Tumaina at Kajiado county referral hospital

It is one of those rare moments that a journalist’s camera is allowed inside a hospital theater. Ngurany Tumaina, a mother of five, lies sprawled on the surgical table. Dr John Wachira, a urologist, is hard at work. Stitch by stitch, he pieces together torn parts of Ngurany’s reproductive walls.

“These, here, are fistulas,” he motions to a team by his side at the Kajiado Referral hospital. “We have to repair all of them or she will continue leaking urine.”