This archive report was first published on 10 July 2020.
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu Rescues Ailing Tanzanian Woman ¶
On Thursday, July 9, 2020, Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu was driving along Uhuru Highway in Nairobi County when she spotted a 20-year-old Tanzanian woman begging on the streets. The woman had a malignant growth on her face that caught the governor's attention.
Ngilu stopped her vehicle and interacted with the woman, learning that she had been living with the condition for a long time and had come to Kenya in hopes of meeting well-wishers to help her undergo a maxillofacial operation to correct the growth.
"On interacting with her further I learned that she has been living with this condition for a long time and had come to Kenya with the hope of meeting well-wishers to help her undergo a maxillofacial operation to correct the growth," Ngilu stated.
The woman was sitting on the pavement with her child as the governor engaged her on the health problem. Ngilu offered to pay for the expenses of the operation, which would be conducted in her county at the Kitui Referral hospital. The hospital had previously conducted four similar surgeries.
"The patient has been picked, and is now in an ambulance on her way to Kitui Referral hospital," she stated.
Maxillofacial surgery is a surgical specialty focusing on reconstructive surgery of the face, facial trauma surgery, the oral cavity, head and neck, mouth, and jaws, as well as facial cosmetic surgery. The surgery can be performed to improve the health of the patient or as a cosmetic procedure to enhance the appearance or symmetry of the face.
Dr. Arelis Castillo, a maxillofacial surgeon, conducted her first surgery at the Kitui Referral Hospital in 2018 on a 62-year-old farmer in Kitui county, who had lived with a facial deformity for 30 years. Dr. Castillo is expected to perform the surgery on the Tanzanian national.
