This is Sonita, a 27-year-old factory worker from Cambodia. She is one of six children, and enjoys cooking and helping her family on their farm.
“Sonita was seven when she began experiencing bilateral ear discharge and pain,” our medical partner Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC), explains. “Over time this has perforated the tympanic membrane on both sides.” Her condition is also known as a ruptured eardrum, and can cause pain, bleeding, and hearing loss.
Sonita details the significant discomfort that her ruptured eardrums cause: “I have ear pain and it is difficult to communicate with other people,” she shares. “I cannot go to work at the factory some days when my ears are very painful.”
Sonita travelled two hours with her mother to reach CSC for proper medical treatment. For $598, doctors at CSC will perform a myringoplasty first on her left side and then six weeks later on her right side to close the perforations in her eardrums. “After each myringoplasty, the discharge will stop and her hearing will improve in that ear,” CSC shares.
With proper treatment Sonita will be able to live her life without the constant pain and discomfort she has had for most of her life. She will be able to return to her home and work happy and healthy. “I hope my ear stops having discharge and I have good hearing,” Sonita expresses.