For 11 years, Ms Felistah Nafula, 36, has lived with abdominal pains that she believed were ulcers for which she sought treatment.
The problem started weeks after she had a Caesarian birth of her first child in a Kitale hospital in the neighboring Kenya.
But as the years went by, and when she was all set to enter the twelfth year with her problem, doctors started to suspect that her problem was bigger than ulcers.
Several scans showed that she was host to something metallic in her abdomen and she was booked for the theatre at Maragua Level Four hospital in Murang’a County.
After a two-hour procedure on February 2, the doctors presented to her their find — an old surgical blade.
Dr Kairo Kimende, the hospital’s medical superintendent, led the surgical team and he told Nation.Africa that the blade was found in the abdomen lodged between the uterus and the small intestines.
The blade was lying in such a way that “it made Ms Nafula lose the ability to conceive for the time she hosted it in her abdomen,” said Dr Kimende.
Ms Nafula said the blade nearly ended her marriage since her husband could not comprehend why a decade later, they had not gotten another child.
She was at pains to explain herself, knowing too well that it was not mischief on her part.
Husband’s patience
Her husband, Samuel Mungai, said he was patient all along because he loved his wife.
“I even played a role in seeking medical attention for her. Not in search of a baby, but for her problem that would see her abdomen distend and she would occasionally pass out. I knew she had a problem but I never thought it was related to her inability to conceive,” he said.
He visited a doctor to check if he was the problem.
“With the knowledge that my wife was the problem, I took a closer interest. Medical doctor friends advised me to have my wife undergo a series of examinations related to her fertility,” he said.
X-rays conducted at a hospital in Thika revealed that she had a strange body of metallic nature in the abdomen.
Mr Mungai is happy that his wife is now free from the problematic blade. “Conceiving is not a priority, but if it happens I will praise God,” he said.
“I hope the government will investigate the medics who handled my wife’s Caesarian birth 11 years ago and have them explain how and why the blade was dumped inside my wife’s abdomen,” he said.
He added: “I hope they will compensate us for the troubles, anguish and losses suffered.”
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