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“Nobody wanted to see me before the operation … If I was coming, they’d all run,” she said. Okanlawon explained that surgery helps to tackle the stigma surrounding facial disfigurement she herself has undergone several operations.

Photo by: Claire Jeantet / Fabrice Catérini / Chloe Fournier / Inediz In 2020, surgeries were more than halved as a result of COVID-19, but have since resumed with in-country surgeons taking the lead.įour times a year, a team of highly trained plastic and maxillofacial surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses from all over the world arrive at Sokoto's Noma Children Hospital to perform reconstructive surgery for noma patients. In 2019, teams performed 178 surgeries on 129 patients. Oftentimes multiple surgeries and physiotherapy is needed across several years. When overseas surgical teams who visit quarterly arrive, usually around 30 patients await a procedure. Bukola Oluyide, deputy medical coordinator at MSF in Nigeria, said.Īt the hospital, more testing and treatment for any comorbidities - including sepsis, dehydration, and malnutrition - takes place before there’s an assessment for reconstructive surgery. If the patient doesn’t want to travel, antibiotics and nutrition treatment are provided in the hope that they’ll consider coming for a reconstructive surgery at a later date, Dr.

#Happy bones ntd for free#

Any patients diagnosed by the outreach team or other in-country MSF factions are referred to Sokoto for free care. Isah Shafiu, chairman of the medical advisory committee at the hospital. “We try to make everyone, including health providers, know what noma is, how it presents and starts and what should someone do if they see a patient with noma,” explained Dr.

Adebowale Murtala, MSF counsellor educator in Noma Children Hospital, visits the postoperative ward every day to check how patients are dealing with the painful recovery from the reconstructive surgery.