Mary is a 28-year-old wife and mother who lives in Kenya. She came to our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), with leg pain and difficulty walking.
“Three days ago, Mary was walking when she fell and hit her leg,” explains AMHF. “She was brought to the hospital and diagnosed with a fracture of the patella.”
The patella, more commonly known as the kneecap, is a small, movable bone at the front of the knee. It acts as a shield for the knee joint and connects muscles from the thigh to the lower leg. Falling directly onto the knee, as Mary did, is a common cause of patellar fractures.
“If not treated,” AMHF continues, “Mary will continue to have pain, and treatment delay may make it impossible for the bone to unite.”
Treatment for Mary requires a surgical procedure known as open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) to reposition and set the broken patella so that it can heal properly.
$1,125 in funding covers the cost of surgery, a two-week hospital stay, and 10 days of physiotherapy. “We expect that an ORIF for Mary will enable her to heal and walk normally,” reports AMHF.
Mary’s husband works as a day laborer at construction sites to support the couple and their three children. “Now he has to stay at home because of our small baby, and soon we may not have anything to eat,” Mary shares anxiously. “I hope Watsi will help me so that I can be well soon to go and assist him.”
Let’s make this surgery happen for Mary!