A woman lost her face
——— WARNING EXPLICIT GRAPHIC!———-
Her name is Sumini (50), she lives in Madiun, East Java Indonesia. She has lost almost all the face including her nose, eyes, lips from skin cancer. All she got left now are only a part of her chin and forehead. She was diagnosed with a Basalioma ( a type of skin cancer) in 1974, 34 years ago.
It was all start with just a kind of pimple between her eyes, and she just left it and thought it would disappear.
Unfortunately it was actually a cancer and start growing and growing bigger up to 5 cm in diameter, then her husband brought her to Dr. Sutomo Hospital in Surabaya.
She had X-Ray therapies to treat the cancer. The couple are only a poor farmer in the small village, and they have sold everything for her stay in the hospital. After three months she was finally discharged from the hospital, and the doctor asked her to come back for check up in three months time, but they got nothing left in possession. They did not to come back again.
Then the worst comes, the cancer start destroying the face, the muscle and the bones in the face gone. She has no more nose, lips, eyes and has a huge hole in he face.
She even can’t eat properly because she lost the lips and the mouth doesn’t function well.
Everyday she just eat a very thin porridge or noddle because they are easier to slurp.
In the last 19 years after the second attack, she practically has no proper treatment for her illness and never been taken to hospital. A nurse comes to check once a week and give her pain killer when she feels pain. She paid $2 for ever nurse visit.
She refused to be taken to hospital again even when the government offer her free treatment, she afraid she still need to have to pay, she is just so poor. Very sad.
According to Dr.Tjahjo Winantyo SpB, a surgery specialist from Indonesian Doctor Association, Basalioma was caused by a cancer sell in the skin layer and the disease spread and speed up by the sun exposure. This kind of skin cancer can be detected when unusual pimples, acne, and small lump come on the face. If they don’t disappear after a while please do check with your doctor or specialist.
This article was published in www.kompas.com on 23 June 2009, in Indonesian. If any of you readers who know or have access to someone you think can help, like World Health Organisation, Charities, Specialist or whoever, please kindly help.
You can contact the Kompas media publisher at:
PT. Kompas Cyber Media
Gedung Kompas Gramedia, Unit II Lt. 5
Jl. Palmerah Selatan No. 22 – 28
Jakarta 10270, Indonesia.
Telp : 62-21 5350377 / 5350388
Fax : 62-21 5360678
Via Email: http://www.kompas.com/contactus
Sumini’s address:
Dusun Punden, Desa Nglanduk,
Kecamatan Wungu, Kabupaten Madiun
Jawa Timur – Indonesia
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posibly Related Posts
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply