October 9 , 2006 Dear Friends, As you might know, DFL is currently experiencing some problems with the
Department of Health surrounding the registration of our medical work The story about Miss Felismina is not an unfamiliar one to most of you. It seems like it was just the other day that Mark Keiser, one of the first medical volunteers who helped at the DFL clinic in Zavora, told us her story for the first time. Mark met Felismina during his volunteering in Zavora during September to December in 2004. Her desperate situation made her crawl to the DFL clinic in Zavora for approximately 4km. The dragging marks left in the hot sand bore testimony to that. When she reached the clinic, she basically asked him to amputate her severely deformed and badly infected feet which by then was only a burden to her. She crawled on her knees with her feet slightly elevated, avoiding touch which caused pain and filth getting into the wounds. She was treated by a witch doctor up to that stage. He basically applied grounded coconut and other unhygienic 'rubbish' to the rapidly decaying open wounds, adding to her accumulating grief and pain. Since she came to our clinic, numerous attempts were made by many of you to assist her with treatment, love and care. Although she has experienced a rollercoaster ride of improvements and setbacks due to the lack of proper medical help and medicines, she kept both her feet and started attending church.Relief came when a lady called Lydia, a local convert of the established mission station, agreed to take care of her. Lydia barely has enough to care for her own family. She received some brief training by a medical team who helped during December 2005. Felismina moved in with Lydia and her family, and that's when, for the first time, she started attending church herself - crawling. Lydia stays much closer to the mission station (where our clinic is based) and Felismina was now away from the influence of relatives who took her to the witch doctor.The question remained, that even if the huge gaping wounds would heal completely, whether she would ever be able to walk again due to the deforming of her feet. At least not without surgery. As far as we could determine, this problem started when she was a child of 10 (today she is approximately 21). It started with something like a pimple. Ever since that time she has been on her knees crawling causing her tendons to shrink permanently. Although she was convinced that amputation was unnecessary, she was still afraid of the idea of walking again, seemingly rejecting any such possibilities. I think she was afraid. She was content to crawl around, knowing that her feet were healing, but probably more importantly - that she was in an environment of love, care and nurturing. She didn't like the idea of any surgical procedure at all. However, God has been slowly working out His plan with Felismina. The good news is that Oom Danie sent me a message that she started walking
on crutches!
We would like to thank all of you that played a role
in helping Felismina. Please remember the work in Zavora and Felismina
in your prayers. 'Doctors for Life International' represents more than 1400 medical doctors and specialists, three-quarters of who practice in South Africa. Since 1991 DFL has been actively promoting health care that is safe and efficient for all South Africans. DFL was founded as a South African organization in 1991 and has spread across the globe. DFL is involved in several community projects including orphan care, the care of terminal AIDS patients, malaria prevention and the care of abused women. |