Abebech, age 8, rests on the operating table, her eyes following the nurses’ every move. She appears relaxed, even though she has not been given any drugs. Trust is apparent, and a smile creeps across her face as Dr. Andrew Browning enters the room.
On the other side of the room, another woman is being prepped for her fistula repair. Two surgeries can occur at the same time in the pristine clean operating room. The woman and Abebech exchange smiles, knowing that relief will soon come to them.
Abebech was brutally sodomized, with a resulting rectal fistula. Rape was only recently deemed illegal here in Ethiopia, so the culture has not caught up with the new law. Most women will not admit that rape occurs. In Abebech’s case, she says that it was “an accident”. Dr. Andrew knows that the injuries indicate rape. I ask Andrew if this is the youngest rape victim he has seen. He shakes his head no, and relays that the youngest was four years old.
My heart yearns to hold her, to take away the reality that she most likely will go home to her perpetrator. I don’t want to think about how she might suffer this injury again.
Dr. Andrew whispers something to her, and she smiles again.