By Mabinty M. Kamara
A 28-year-old woman who went for seven years with forceps (scissors-like instrument) left in her abdomen after a caesarean surgery is to undergo another operation to have them removed.
The discovery was made at the Kambia Government hospital. The woman Zainab Kamara has since the surgery been having difficulties moving her right leg and has endured persistent bleeding which has brought her discomfort and stigmatization among her peers.
She lost the baby in the course of the surgery that took place at the Port Loko Government hospital in 2014.
Due to the subsequent difficulty in her walking, Zainab got herself enrolled in a skills training programme organized by the Welfare Society for the Disabled in Kambia where she now resides.
The Society’s Executive Director, Joseph Allieu Kamara told Politico that when Zainab started attending the programme, they realized that she was missing classes regularly and when they inquired about her absenteeism, she complained of bleeding and pain in her lower abdomen.
“We took her to the hospital [in Kambia] because of the complaints and the doctors requested a scan [Pelvic x-ray]. It was after the scan result was out, that we saw scissors in her lower abdomen from where she had been complaining of pain,” Kamara explained.
He said when interviewed it was then she told them of the surgery she had undergone some seven years ago. “When asked if she could remember the doctors that did the surgery, she said they were many and could not remember all of them. So we invited a journalist to help us investigate the story,” Kamara said.
She however identified a doctor, Isaac Sesay currently based at the Kambia Government hospital whom she alleged was part of the team that conducted the surgery in Port Loko, and felt unsafe to go under the knife again having him around, and asked that she be taken to another medical facility instead so the forceps could be removed.
When contacted, Dr. Sesay acknowledged having been working at the Port Loko Government hospital at the time, and admitted that the X-ray that made the discovery was done at the Kambia Government hospital but said only that the hospital records could prove that he was part of the surgical team as he could remember all the surgeries he had taken part in during that period.
“It’s complex a bit because when you talk about a surgical team, it means the surgeon that did the operation, the assistant, the anesthetist, and the scrub nurse. To keep all information of patients in my head for seven years, it’s not easy. I don’t even know whether I was at the hospital at that time, but I believe the hospital record will be available,” he said.
When Politico contacted the current District Medical Officer at the Port Loko Government hospital, Dr. Mamoud Idriss, he said he was not at the hospital at the time of the incident under review and that he hadn’t received any such report from anyone.
Zainab has since been taken to the Mabesseneh hospital in Lunsar but due to the limited bed situation there, she was booked for admission into the hospital ward for Monday 14 June 2021, to await surgery. It is yet unknown whether she could ever walk normally again or be cured of her bleeding after the next operation.
Copyright (2021) Politico Online
