“Her operation lasted for four hours and we removed 20 litres of fluid from her stomach” Dr. Waheed.
Dr. Waheed M. Hassan of Life Care Sierra Leone, has successfully carried an operation on Haja Adama Juldeh Barrie in Freetown. Dr. Waheed who is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist told News 24 that the lady was suffering from Malignant Ovarian Cystic Mass or fluid filled sac in the ovary. “We did the operation which lasted for four hours and removed 20 liters of fliud from Haja Adama’s stomach”, he said.
He said they did the surgery in Sierra Leone successfully without going to Ghana where the family initially intended to fly her for treatment. The mother of the victim, Soffie Kamara who lives in Waterloo said her daughter’s real name is Haja Adama Juldeh Barrie. But because she was constantly harassed, she changed her name to Binta.
“My daughter has been living with the swollen stomach for two years with excessive stress. We visited several hospitals including Marie Stopes and Masanga. We were told that she was pregnant. Masanga hospital even told me that my daughter’s organs were not functioning”, she said.
When I sent her to visit her grandmother in Waterloo, Adama was accused of carrying someone’s pregnancy which made her disappear from home for several days until we had to put out a press release.
Soffie said, she later found her daughter and took her to the Life Care hospital at 198 Wilkinson Road, Freetown where they met Dr. Waheed. The Gynecologist told them that, the lady was suffering from fluid filled sac in the ovaries and that they would do the surgery in Sierra Leone without going to Ghana. Few days ago she added, the surgery was successfully done and her daughter is now responding to treatment.
“The joy and relief I have at the moment is unexplainable”, she said. It could be recalled that, about a month ago, there was a video on social media of a lady dressed in black with a swollen stomach. She was constantly mocked and harassed in the streets as she was accused of carrying a witch pregnancy. She has now gone through a successful surgery. The family however extended their gratitude to all those who contributed in several ways in helping Adama as she goes through her healing process.
Meanwhile, medical practitioners have described this surgery as a successful breakthrough in Sierra Leone because such cases were usually referred abroad.