Faustina Annan, a beneficiary of Vodafone Healthline, praised Vodafone for ending her nightmare by making it possible for her son to urinate and pass stool like any other person.
In the Anaji Westline community of Takoradi in the Western Region, there were tears of joy and enormous sighs of relief for the mother and grandmother of Jayden Annan. Imagine the shame and humiliation of a woman who conceives for the first time only for the father to reject the pregnancy. Add to that the stress of being a mother to a newborn son with a very complex deformity – no penis to urinate or anus to pass stool.
That was the predicament of Faustina. According to her, she could not determine whether her child was a boy or girl upon delivery and that deepened her bewilderment. However, that did not stop her from searching high and low for a solution to her baby’s condition.
At birth, the child’s penis shaft was absent and just one testicle was present. Again, there was no passage for urine, so both urine and faecal matter came from the same opening.
The Annan family was referred to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where the doctor, upon diagnosis, explained that the situation was quite dire and required surgery to correct. This led to a first operation, during which the doctors created an opening in the child’s side to allow him to pass stools.
However, this could not solve the issue since the child was always in severe pain. Therefore, the doctors undertook a second surgery to close the first opening and create a different one at the boy’s anus for that purpose. Unfortunately, that surgery was unsuccessful, so the doctors undertook a third surgery to create the opening in the child’s side again.
With this new procedure, Faustina had to change her child’s clothes after each meal because he would soil them. This was the situation that caused a fourth surgery to become a necessity.
“Sometimes I ask myself if Jayden would ever have a penis or grow up like this and keep wearing pampers?” cried Faustina.
Doctors conducted a fourth operation to create a new opening in Jayden’s abdomen and also to find out why the third surgery failed. According to Faustina, Jayden wanted to go to school but his situation would not permit him. He kept asking his mother very disheartening questions about himself and his condition.
Thankfully, Jayden’s questions and Faustina’s prayers were answered when Vodafone Healthline learned about their precarious situation and quickly offered timely help to give Jayden a normal life.
“I am a cheerful person now and I thank Vodafone Healthline for offering to help Jayden. May God Bless Vodafone and increase your finances so that you keep helping other unfortunate children with disabilities to bring them relief,” Faustina Annan said.
Also, in the eighth episode of season 10, Dr Amoako Duah, a Gastroenterologist with the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), educated the public on the liver, touching on its function, and importance, and how to keep it healthy.
He made a very intriguing revelation that about 90 per cent of people who drink alcohol excessively can develop a liver problem termed fatty liver disease. He also said people with obesity or who take concoctions to slim down within the shortest possible time can also become prone to non-alcoholic fatty liver conditions.
Myth Busters
In the myth-busters segment, the Healthline in-house doctors, Dr Kwekuma Yalley and Dr Aba Folson discussed the topic ‘A vagina is permanently stretched during childbirth.’
Dr Kwekuma Yalley, the General Practitioner, explained that during a pregnancy period the whole body of the woman undergoes some changes but returns to near normal after childbirth, as does the vagina.
Dr Aba Folson, the Cardiologist, emphasized that the vagina can stretch to accommodate a baby coming out and compress back to near normal, hence it is not true that a vagina is permanently stretched during childbirth.
Touching on a trend in society now where some men prefer Cesarean Section (CS) delivery because they do not want their partner’s vagina to widen, Dr Folson stated it is a misconception as the vagina resizes in due time. Caesarean Section delivery is the surgical delivery of a baby through an incision made in the mother’s abdomen and uterus.
According to Dr Folson, if no complications occur during the child delivery process, the vagina’s elastic tissue stretches back to normal, especially when the mother embarks on Kegel exercises to tone those muscles and strengthen her pelvic floor.
In conclusion, the doctors advised against the use of drugs and other concoctions to tighten the vagina before or after childbirth. This is because these actions make it impossible for the vagina tissues to expand and contract again in subsequent childbirth, which usually leads to tearing.
