Hospital records 200 VVF cases annually, offers free surgery
The Maternal Birth Injury hospital in Itu, Akwa Ibom State says it records an average of 200 Visco-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) cases annually.
According to experts, VVF is an abnormal communication between the vagina and the bladder.
It is mostly caused by prolonged obstructed labour from whatever cause during childbirth resulting in continuous dribbling of urine or faeces.
Ngozi Ndubuaku, the matron of the hospital in an interview with BusinessDay in her office lamented the high incidence of the VVF/RVF cases adding the hospital recently received 29 patients on admission for treatment.
She explained that out of the number, 22 were new cases while the rest were old patients.
Ndubuaku said that due to the high cost of treatment usually done through surgery, the hospital organises a camp quarterly and invites specialists in the treatment of VVF/RVF from the national hospital Abuja and other hospitals to work with the doctors at Maternal Birth Injury hospital which usually involves the repair of damaged organs.
She said the hospital also provides skill acquisition training in dress making as well as hair dressing for those who have successful undergone treatment and have become dry and who might be too poor and had been abandoned by their relations as a means of rehabilitating them.
Ndubuaku, blames the increase in the number of VVF/RVF cases on poverty and cultural beliefs saying that a good number of the patients could hardly afford hospital delivery while many of them are afraid of caesarean section.
“The surgery is free, we augment their feeding and we buy foodstuffs to share to the patients, a special care is needed after they are discharged from the hospital because majority of them are very poor,’’ she said.
“The patients are poor, VVF/RVF will still be occurring due to poverty and cultural beliefs, we are not getting much support from the public,’’ she said.
She spoke of a 15-year-old patient who was raped and abandoned saying the girl was taken to the hospital where she was operated upon after which she has started primary school.
She however lauded Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) for the support to the hospital which she said has been in the form of paying the salary of the workers describing the oil company as their backbone in the running of the centre.
The matron who also commended the state government for posting some health workers to the centre and also paying their salaries called for public enlightenment on the need for pregnant women to deliver their babies in hospitals while churches and other faith based organisation should encourage their members to go to hospitals when their female members are in labour.
Ndubuaku who appealed to medical doctors to show interest in specialising in the treatment of maternal birth injury though that field of medical practice might not be lucrative said they should do so as part of humanitarian services and commended Ann Ward, the Irish national and medical doctor who founded the Medical Missionary of Mary in 1950s for her pioneering role in the repair of damage caused by prolonged and obstructed labour.
There are few hospitals in the Niger Delta region of the country handling the treatment of VVF/RVF cases. The hospital run by Medical Missionary of Mary, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) belonging the Catholic Church.
ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo