Twelve of the women who were forced out of their hospital beds when radical Islamists seized the city of Gao in northern Mali have finally been found and treated, thanks to the reinstatement of the Fistula Care Project in Mali.
After a long search, the project and its local partner GREFFA located many of the missing women—some of whom had been without care for almost nine months. Project staff then transported them and ten other obstetric fistula patients to Mopti, a city southwest of Gao, where a surgical team provided the treatment, care, and referrals the women so urgently needed.
Gao fell into the hands of armed rebel groups on March 31, 2012. The attackers looted and ransacked facilities throughout the city, including the hospital, where many patients were preparing for or recovering from obstetric fistula repair surgeries provided by the project. The rebels ousted the women. Terrified patients fled into the streets, some with their catheters and infusion bags still attached.
The full article continues at http://www.intrahealth.org/page/missing-fistula-patients-in-northern-mali-found on IntraHealth International’s website.