Meet Ann, a 36-year-old wife and mother of six children from Kenya. To support her family, Ann “cleans houses and washes clothes for people,” shares our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF). Additionally, “Ann and her husband are both casual workers and do whatever manual job they can find.” However, recently Ann has been unable to work due to symptoms from an ovarian cyst.
Over the past two years, Ann has experienced increasing pain in her abdomen. Upon traveling to an AMHF clinic, “Ann was informed that she had a pelvic mass and an ovarian cyst, and was advised on the need for surgery.”
Ovarian masses are fluid-filled cysts attached to the ovary. Typically, these masses are benign and will disappear after a few months. In more severe cases, however, the cysts can grow and develop over several years—thus causing health complications whereby the masses can “turn cancerous” or even “break open,” explains AMHF.
$620 will fund a laparotomy—a surgical procedure that involves cutting into the abdominal cavity to remove the cysts currently growing in Ann’s ovaries. This process will prevent the tissue from growing back in the future, giving Ann more peace of mind. Included in her treatment, Ann will receive three days of hospital care and all of the laboratory tests and medication required for a safe operation.
AMHF expresses, “We expect that after surgery and recovery, Ann will be able to go back to work with her husband.”
“I thank God that he guided us to AMHF where we have met you and will get assisted. All I want is to have my wife well again,” Ann’s husband states.
