The Patients
Means of arrival at the hospital:
Enormous journeys are often made by the patients, sometimes taking months to arrive at the hospital. They are not welcomed on public transport because they smell.
Sometimes patients are weak when they arrive. They are put in accommodation and given a diet that restores them to a reasonable state of health.
These distraught women arrive by bus, by lorry, on foot or at times on a stretcher carried by a father and brother. They arrive to be greeted with love and affection, often in a very confused and anxious state - certainly dirty, and unclean because of their condition.
Restoration to health:
Generally, those patients without complications are restored to health completely in 3 weeks. They leave hospital in a new dress with some food and sufficient money to get home. They are also given their medical records and encouraged to get to a hospital next time they become pregnant.
Every other day, on average, 7 women walk out of the hospital in Addis Ababa cured. In the year ended 30 June 2007, the total for all the hospitals and centres was 2090 major operations and 277 minor operations.