Azmera was homeless and abandoned. What uniform is she wearing now??
By Rick Hodes, MD
One day in 2005, I was walking across the grounds of Gondar Medical College Hospital when a local doctor came to me. “Dr. Rick,” he said, “can I show you a patient?” “Sure,” I replied, “what do you have?”
He took me to the pediatric ward and said to me, “This is Azmera. She lives here. She was abandoned 3 years ago.” I looked at her and saw her V-shaped back. “This should be TB of the spine, yes?” I asked. “We think so,” he replied. He showed me her x-ray, confirming TB. It had the telltale destruction of a back bone, turning a rectangle into a triangle. I sat, took a medical history, and examined Azmera.
I asked Azmera a question I ask every child I treat- “What do you want to be when you grow up?” These days I get lots who want to be doctors, along with a few pilots, scientists, and teachers. Great stuff. When I asked Azmera what her dream was if she was healed, she answered, “I want to be a housemaid.” This was her survival strategy - it gave her food to eat and a roof over her head.
Our spine program was in its infancy at that time, and Azmera was the perfect candidate. “Can we get her to Addis Ababa?” I asked.
I spoke with the nuns at Mother Teresa’s Mission in Addis Ababa, and they agreed to accept her. She certainly fit their criteria: she was “poorest of the poor,” young, and abandoned. Many permissions needed to be filed and considered and finally, Gondar hospital agreed let her go into my care. I flew her to Addis Ababa and delivered her to Mother Teresa’s, where she lived for a year.
One day Azmera said to me “I can’t see very well. Can you check my eyes?” We sent her to an optometrist. Her prescription? – minus 12! She was profoundly nearsighted, and could not see anything in the distance. On my next trip to the US, I had glasses made for her, and she was already more whole than she had been in years.
We enrolled her in our new JDC Spine Program. We sent her to Ghana, where FOCOS doctors removed 1 vertebra and fused 10 spine levels. Technically she was fused from T7-L4, with a posterior VCR of L1, along with a rib resection. In plain English, they straightened her back. And she healed well.
Later we flew her to New York to be the keynote speaker at a dinner for FOCOS, Dr. Oheneba Boachie’s spine organization, whom we partner closely with. Azmera got a standing ovation on Park Avenue!
As I write this, I am sheltering against the coronavirus in Tennessee, so let me add the voice of my friend Shelly Dollar who runs Making the Grade: Hope for African Youth, an important part of Azmera’s story.
Shelly wrote me:
Azmera was born in a small village near Gondar and comes from a family of five. Her parents make their daily living by farming. At a very young age, Azmera started having pain in her back- she was not able to play and enjoy her childhood like her friends. Azmera’s father took her to different doctors and hospitals, but no one could figure out what was wrong with her. With each visit, they were told there was nothing that could be done.
Azmera’s pain and weakness increased, and reached a point where she was unable to walk, instead she crawled on her arms and knees. Her father lost all hope. Neighbors advised her dad to bring her to the teaching hospital in Gondar. The doctors there started her on TB medication. Her strength improved, and she regained the ability to walk upright. However, the doctors were not able to do anything about the huge V-shaped deformity in her back.
We recently interviewed Azmera. Let me allow Azmera to take over, in her own words:
My father decided to abandon me in the hospital. Being related to me stigmatized him – my case was rare and very uncommon. I lived in the hospital for three years. All the doctors and nurses were so friendly and loving. We all waited for my father to come and take me home, but he never showed up. In the hospital, I assisted the nurses and carefully watched them work. I pushed their tray containing bandages, cotton balls and alcohol when they did rounds.
Someone came up to me one day and said, “I know someone who can help you with your back.” He took my address. To be honest, being able to walk upright now was the greatest gift. I never even considered I had an option of having my back operated on. The guy that I met told me that he would introduce me to Dr. Rick, and that he would help me.
After some weeks, Dr. Rick came to the hospital and visited me. He spoke with the head of the hospital and told him that he wanted to cover all my medical costs and get me treated. However, they rejected his request, because they didn’t want to take the risk if my father was to come back and ask for me. After many tries, they allowed him to get me treated. Dr. Rick flew me to Addis Ababa and I stayed at Mother Teresa’s Home for Sick and Dying Destitutes for a year while processing my travel to get my surgery.
I flew to Ghana with 5 other patients in November, 2006 through the JDC Spine Program. Dr. Boachie and his team at FOCOS did an all-day operation at Korle-Bu Hospital.
After I got back from Ghana, Dr. Rick introduced me to Shelly Dollar who runs Making the Grade. I call her “mom” because she is like a mother to me. I moved to her house in Addis Ababa 8 years ago, and I am still living there. She has played a great role forming the person I am today. She took me in, fed me and helped me a lot with my education. She got me to private school and after I was done with high school, she counseled and guided me through college and helped me into pursuing my dreams of becoming a nurse. I call myself lucky to have her in my life.
I truly consider Dr. Rick as an angel sent from heaven for me. I thought life would be just existing in the hospital, until I could maybe become a housemaid.
After years of hard work and effort, I have my life back. I have made my true dream- to become a health practitioner, come true. I am now a nurse in one of the biggest, most respected hospitals in Addis, Ababa.
If anyone told me 11 years ago that I would be here today, I wouldn’t have believed it. My life is so much better, I can never forget all the people who helped me get here.