What began as a mild back pain 20 years ago has confined Margaret Achola in bed for the past 15 years. She has been lying anxious with faint hope that someday, she’ll stand strong and get back to simple tasks that gave her joy like gardening.

Her agony started in 1993 with some mild back pain she felt while weeding her garden. Three years later, she was bedridden. And it was only four years later that she was diagnosed with paralysis of the spine at Kisumu County Hospital. By then, the damage had been done. Her legs were no longer functional. 

According to Dr Thadeus Massawa of the Kisumu County Referral Hospital, Achola’s condition must have begun from the point she felt pain in the garden, and probably from hurting her back. Had she had proper and immediate intervention administered, her paralysis may have been averted. While physiotherapy, in addition to other medical therapies, is the appropriate response to spinal paralysis, Achola hasn’t considered them.