No one else knew how badly the two women suffered as they journeyed to seek medical help in Equateur District, deep inside Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The country is still reeling after a long, destructive civil war that took many lives, shattered the economy and medical services, and left many roads and bridges impassable.

Rampant cases of malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, meningitis, river blindness, and other tropical diseases continue to plague the poverty-stricken country.

But the two women were luckier than most. At the end of their trek to the Covenant Church hospital at Karawa were specialists from Northwest Medical Teams. The team included leader Dr. Roger Thorpe; OB/GYN Dr. Bill Petty; general surgeon Dr. Gordon Jacobs; and anesthesiologist Dr. Robert DeMaster. Working in partnership with the Congo Covenant Church medical program, they trained the Congolese physicians by working side-by-side with them in these and other surgeries.

The encounter in the fall of 2005 changed the women’s lives forever.

According to Dr. Thorpe, a former long-term missionary to DR Congo, the women, both in their late 20s, had vesicovaginal fistulas (VVF)—a hole in the tissue of the vagina—caused by long and obstructed labors. The result is the continual leakage of urine into the vagina. It’s a constant flow out of the body that the women cannot stop.

Because of the continual leakage of urine, these women are shunned by their husbands and other family members. They’re considered outcasts.

“This happens far too often in the Congo,” said Thorpe, “because many women live so far from any medical facility. They undergo difficult labor and have to travel for many hours—often they have to walk—to get to a hospital. Some of them walk as many as 15-20 miles. It can take a whole day and a night. Usually, the baby dies." 

In some cases, the women also die. For these two women, the complicated surgeries were a success. The women were elated. Their health was restored, they were free from stigma, and hopeful to bear children in the future.

The same team of specialists, which traveled to DR Congo August 15- September 5, 2005, treated many other patients. Among them was a small boy who had third-degree burns on his neck. His mother brought him to the hospital.

"I don't know how [the burns] happened," said Thorpe. "Usually they’re the result of a child falling into a cooking fire or being in a grass fire. The burn probably occurred several years ago."

The child’s burns resulted in extensive scarring and a marked limitation of head movement. In the surgery, the doctors removed the scar tissue, replacing it with grafts in a procedure called “Z-plasties.” With time, they expect the boy to have a great increase in head mobility—something he has not experienced for years.