Hawa thought it was just an insect bite
Weeks later she could no longer walk
Hawa Musa considers herself lucky. She raised six daughters with her husband, Mekki, and their youngest daughter, Amjuma, still lived at home. That became especially important when circumstances beyond the family’s control left Hawa without her husband.
Mekki, who is blind, had traveled to Khartoum – the capital of Sudan – to seek treatment. While he was there, civil war erupted, and the bombing and artillery fire made it impossible for him to return home. With Mekki stranded in Khartoum, Hawa was especially grateful to have Amjuma with her. Without her daughter, she would have been completely alone.
To make ends meet at home, Amjuma would make and sell tea in the marketplace to earn a meager income for her mother and herself. One afternoon while Amjuma was away, Hawa received a mysterious insect bite. She thought little of it until her body started breaking out in blisters. They weren’t painful at the time, but itched very much. So she went to a clinic in Yida where she was told it was allergies.
Hawa took medicine injections for several days, but continued to see more blisters appear on her body. So she stopped the injections and simply suffered with the condition for an entire month, because she had no money to travel elsewhere or to pay for more medicine.
After hearing of Hawa’s condition, her nephew came to see her. He took Hawa to a different clinic to try to find help for her. After she was examined, she was told the blisters were from poisonous insect venom. She was prescribed more injections, but again they proved to be of no help. She was still breaking out in more blisters. And beyond the incessant itching, the blisters were now becoming painful.
Hawa stopped the injections once again. She painfully lived with the condition day by day, able to do very little, but thankful for the help of her daughter. Then a blessing came. Her brother in Khartoum sent her money to pay for transportation to Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel – a Sudan Relief Fund partner hospital. He suspected if any medical facility could help her, Hawa would find that help at Mother of Mercy.
As soon as Hawa received the money, she and her daughter made the trip together to Gidel, a small community in the remote Nuba Mountains, where Mother of Mercy stands as the only referral hospital for hundreds of miles. Founded by missionary doctor Tom Catena, a Brown University alum who hails from New York state and for years served as its only surgeon, the hospital serves an area of more than 3 million people.
It was a painful trip for Hawa. When she arrived at Mother of Mercy, she could no longer walk at all, due to the pain and inflammation from the blisters that covered her body. She was immediately put on a strong protocol of medicines that was continuously administered and monitored around the clock. Hawa wondered if it was too late to find relief, if she would ever be able to walk again, or if she would ever make it back home with her daughter.
But the team at Mother of Mercy continued her treatment aggressively. After a tenuous month and twenty six days later, the blisters and wounds finally gave way to healing. Hawa was able to take her first steps walking a short distance, while she and her daughter beamed.
Today Hawa is very happy, knowing how fortunate she was to have help when she needed it – from a generous brother who paid her fare, to the timely diagnosis and treatment at Mother of Mercy that gave Hawa her life back.
She smiles when she thinks of her team of doctors and nurses who refused to give up on her condition. Hawa says her prayer for them is good health, so they may always be able to offer their medical services to help other suffering people like her.
These stories of lives saved are made possible by compassionate people like you. Mother of Mercy Hospital is fully funded by charitable support and continues to provide medical care that people in this region wouldn’t have without it. Thank you for saving lives and bringing hope to people like Hawa, and thousands of others whose lives depend on this care.
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