In 1989, a 30-year-old soft-spoken Fausta went to a local hospital to deliver her baby. Fausta’s labor failed to progress, and so the doctors used vacuum extraction to remove her stillborn baby. The following day, Fausta found herself leaking urine. She recalls that “as soon as they pulled out the baby, the urine started flowing uncontrollably.” The hospital staff did not attend to her incontinence and told her to go home and return after four months. After her leaking began, Fausta was too embarrassed to return to her husband; instead, she went back home to live with her family.
When Fausta returned to the local hospital four months later, they attempted to repair her fistula, but the repair failed, and she was discharged two months later, even though she was still wet. After another four months, she was referred to a district hospital, where she stayed for four months waiting for another operation. Eventually, she was discharged, still leaking urine. Dejected, Fausta returned home and stayed there with her problem for the next seven years.
In February 1997, a relative told Fausta about Kagando Mission Hospital in Kasese, a faith-based hospital that receives support from Fistula Care to provide fistula repair surgery. Fausta traveled to Kagando Hospital with her uncle and met with a surgeon. He told Fausta that he could not help her with her problem and gave her money for transport back home. While she was at home, Fausta went to church and prayed that she would be healed. One day soon after returning home, Fausta had a vision in church that she should go back to Kagando Hospital to seek medical care again.
A few months later, she returned to Kagando Hospital, and this time the surgeon operated on her and performed urinary diversion surgery. Fausta stayed in the hospital for four months, and when she was discharged, she was able to catheterize herself and was not leaking. After many years with her urinary diversion, Fausta developed pain and an infection, and she was unable to pass urine any longer. She was referred to Kagando Hospital for care. A surgeon at the hospital decided to conduct another urinary diversion operation for Fausta. After going to four different hospitals over the course of almost 20 years, Fausta is finally dry and once again able to catheterize herself. With a smile, she is happy to say, “I don’t have any problem any more and I am okay.”