We escaped death by whisker but now rely on wheelchairs

Japheth Muli Munene, a road accident survivor, confined to a wheelchair. He was involved in an accident on February 9, 2002. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Erastus Ayieko, a 34-year-old former truck driver, is also adjusting to life with disability.

  • Winnie Orwa’s accident in March 2006 changed her life.

What happens if an accident does not kill you? Or when you end up with a severe injury?

Winnie Orwa’s accident in March 2006 changed her life. She went from a happy-go-lucky, bursting-with-dreams and bright-eyed 20-something to a lonely, scared wheelchair-bound girl who at some point contemplated death.

“I am Christian so I would never actually kill myself but at that point I wondered whether it would be better if I just died, rather than live the miserable isolated existence that my life had become,” she said.

She was just 20, a first year student of Interior Design at Maseno University in Kisumu when a matatu she was in crashed, paralysing her from the chest downwards, making her a quadriplegic — someone who has lost function and mobility in both the arms and legs.

“My neck was fractured and I sustained a spinal cord injury which caused my paralysis. I spent six weeks at Aga Khan University Hospital, where nobody was willing to tell me how severe and debilitating my injury was. I kept thinking that I would soon walk out of the hospital and go back to my life. It was only when I was admitted to the National Spinal Injury Hospital that I realized how serious this was, and that barring a miracle, I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair,” she said.

SPINAL HOSPITAL

Orwa would spend a year at the spinal hospital, the only public facility of its kind in Kenya and the larger East African region, where she received extensive physio, hydor and occupational therapy to prepare her for life with disability.

It has been a long road to recovery and she has rallied in great style — no longer the girl who thought that death might be an option.

“Following my disability I lost friends, including the boyfriend I was dating then, but I have slowly created a new social circle that is an amazing support system. I went back to school, to Kenyatta University this time, and switched my degree to counselling psychology, and graduated in 2016. And I have a good job, I am a customer care representative at Safaricom,” she said.

Erastus Ayieko, a 34-year-old former truck driver, is also adjusting to life with disability. He has been wheelchair-confined since 2016 when his truck’s braking system malfunctioned while navigating a steep slope, crashing into a concrete barrier and throwing him and a passenger out through the windscreen. He landed on a tree, his right arm dangling from the shoulder, almost completely severed.

MANAGING CONDITION

But his most serious injury, he would discover once in hospital, was a spinal fracture that had rendered his legs useless. He was paralysed from the waist down.

“I spent three months at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where they inserted implants into my spine to stabilize it. They wanted to amputate my arm but I refused, and now it works perfectly,” said Ayieko, proving it with his firm handshake and gestures during the interview. Once discharged, he was supposed to continue treatment as an outpatient, but the doctor’s strike in October of that year disrupted the schedule and his wife took up the job of managing his condition.

“I had wounds on my arm, down my back to my buttocks, and she had to clean and dress them regularly. We would get a doctor to change my catheter as needed but everything else was up to her, including bathing me and turning me in bed to prevent bed sores,” he said. This dependency on his wife, with whom he has a son, put a great strain in his marriage and she eventually left him last year.

WHEELCHAIR

“Life was hard. I was stuck in a wheelchair and could no longer provide for my family. I felt like I had lost my identity and I contemplated suicide. My wife and I would fight a lot and in the end she got fed up and left with our son. I was left under the care of my parents and siblings,” he said.

In May last year, he learnt of the spine hospital through a friend and was admitted in November and has since been making remarkable improvement. The hospital has a bed capacity of 32, meaning that there is a permanent waiting list for patients.

Ayieko has regained sensation in his legs and the doctors are optimistic that he might soon walk out of the hospital.