The family of a 27-year-old woman in Mombasa is seeking help from well-wishers to save her life.
Fatma Rajab, a journalist at Mo Radio, an FM station based in Mombasa, suffers from rheumatic heart disease, a condition in which the heart valves have been permanently damaged by rheumatic fever.
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that can affect many connective tissues, especially in the heart.
“Her heart valves are deformed. She got this disease when she was 14 years old,” Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital resident medical officer in the ICU Hassan Ali said on Friday.
Fatma was admitted to the CGTRH ICU on Thursday evening after efforts from fellow journalists and Kadzandani MCA Fatma Kushe, who insisted that she be transferred from a hospital in Kiembeni, where she stays with her family.
“As a human, we have to ensure she gets the best treatment first before anything else. We will look for money later. What matters most is her health and most importantly her life,” Kushe said.
According to her family, Fatma underwent valve replacement in India in 2014.
“But with time, since it’s a prosthetic valve, it degenerated meaning it can no longer carry out its function. It has torn out,” Ali said.
The symptoms of heart problems which could lead to heart failure came back recently, Ali said.
“She was put on anti-failure drugs. One of these medications which she was on reacted with her body and the patient started bleeding,” Ali said.
“When the patient was brought to our centre she was experiencing upper GI (gastrointestinal) bleeding meaning she was vomiting blood. She had a dark stool meaning she was bleeding from the lower GI surface and had abdominal pain,” Ali said.
The doctor said they administered vitamin K to counter the effects of the drug that caused the bleeding.
“She is currently stable, much improved from the way she came. She came very sick, her blood pressure was very low, her oxygen saturation was very low but with intervention and ICU admission her symptoms have markedly improved,” Ali said.
Fatma is now conscious, and alert. Her blood pressure is fine and her breathing is okay, according to Ali.
“The only challenge remaining is we have to get a valve replacement which has to be done immediately,” Ali said.
The procedure can be done at the CGTRH at a cost lower than Sh1 million, according to Ali.
The family had earlier been referred to a hospital in Nairobi that quoted Sh1.8 million as the cost of the valve replacement operation, sending the family into panic mode.
They cannot afford that steep amount.
Ali said the degeneration of the valve was discovered at a hospital in Nairobi after a scan.
Fatma’s father Rajab Ali Simenze said his thirdborn started having heart problems while she was in Form Two.
“We took her to India after the community chipped in in a big way because as a family alone we could not have done it,” Simenze said.
He said they also had to sell his father’s house to ensure they go to India for the treatment in 2014.
“Now, she has grown big and the valve has become too small for her. It cannot work anymore,” Simenze said.
“If we had the ability, we would have taken her back to India, to the same facility that operated on her. So I ask for good Samaritans to help us,” Simenze reached out.
Fatma’s mother Mwanatumu Abdalla Fadhili said when she started ailing, they did not know what was wrong with her.
“She was in boarding and we thought the boarding food was not good for her. So we kept on complementing the food with a lot of fruits to boost her health,” Mwanatumu said.
Mwanatumu said up to five doctors treated Fatma after she came back from India for treatment but still she had problems and they could not pinpoint the problems that caused these other complications.
Journalists based in Mombasa had to donate blood because according to doctors, Fatma needed seven pints of blood.
“We are asking for help from any possible source including the government, NGOs, and well-wishers. Help us save our daughter,” she said.
