by Tom Catena
I first met my patient, whom I will call Halima, when she was referred to our hospital while suffering from advanced cervical cancer. In her mid-40s, she initially sought treatment in her home community, in the war-ravaged Darfur region, but the doctors there felt unable to treat her and referred her to the Juba Teaching Hospital in the capital city of South Sudan. There, as well, doctors felt they were ill equipped to handle the case, so they referred her to our Catholic mission hospital in the remote Nuba Mountains of Sudan.
We agreed with the diagnosis of advanced cervical cancer, started chemotherapy and then performed a radical hysterectomy after the second course of chemo. I saw her this week for a follow-up and another cycle of chemotherapy, and I’m happy to report she is recovering and doing well.
This case highlights the fragility and brokenness of the health system in Sudan and South Sudan. Halima’s journey to care would be like a person from California being referred to Texas and then getting sent to rural Pennsylvania for treatment. The task to care for this woman fell to our relatively small hospital, a local project run by local staff.
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Photo by Luke Catena