Grace Maina speaks on pain of undergoing 15 surgeries, FGM, dealing with rogue doctors and con pastors

Grace Maina's story is a journey through pain, endurance, and the unwavering flame of hope. Her life took a detour from normalcy at the tender age of seven.

Grace graced the screens of Citizen TV's 'Shajara na Lulu' show on November 17, baring her soul to the world.

With a soft-spoken eloquence, and eyes bearing testimony of her tumultuous past, Grace revealed the weight of a story that has led her through the depths of hell and back—15 times.

Visits to the hospital revealed that she had a heart condition and thus spent her time in and out of hospitals for the entirety of her treatment period. Given the rugged terrain of Murang'a, she could not go to school given her troubled breathing.

In a hushed confession, Grace disclosed a brutal sexual assault at the vulnerable age of 13, something she never spoke about until the interview with Lulu. She still gets triggered, 20 years on, when she hears anyone who has been assaulted.

“As I was being nursed after being discharged, I was sexually assaulted. It has been 20 years since it happened, and the perpetrator was someone I knew. I have not yet forgiven the man who did that to me," she stuttered.

On a visit to the clinic, she recalls telling her doctor that she was having pain in her private areas.

“The doctor did not look at me, he just sent me to the lab to have my urine tested. I did not have any illness and thus was never given any medication to ease my pain," she narrates.

Her heart diagnosis turned out to be rheumatic heart disease and the doctors told her that she had a hole in her heart. Things took a positive turn when a last-minute echo report showed that the defect had corrected itself and there was no need for surgery.

The four years of consistent treatment had paid off and Grace went on with her life; she completed her studies and was even employed.

In 2009, she gave birth to her daughter. Although she was not keen on sharing that part of her life, it was evident that she is proud of the little girl.

“In 2009, I got a baby and it is not a story I want to share,” she said.

“I was bending over at work one day, and I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, I was rushed to the dispensary, where I was referred to another facility. I was treated and discharged, scheduled for a checkup in two weeks," she said.

On her next visit to the hospital, one test led to another and she was booked for a spine surgery.

“I had insurance covered by my employer, I went in walking on my two feet, but I left the theatre in a wheelchair, and for 6 months, I was bedridden," Grace recalls.

“Things got worse and in the course of my treatment for the spine, I was diagnosed with diabetes and I am still on treatment for the same."

Grace says that things got worse and she was referred to another facility and booked for a second surgery. All this while, her employer still covered her hospital bills, something that she is perpetually grateful for.

She was then referred to the third referral hospital since she began her spine treatments and the doctor at this facility was reluctant to put her through surgery.

“He said, if I am operated on a third time, I may never leave the wheelchair again, Instead, he put me on a traction treatment program and I left the treatment a happy woman after several months. I could walk again," she continued.

She recalls going back to work and what to her was a semblance of normalcy; a job, a spine, diabetes that was well managed, and a beautiful daughter.

2017 marked the start of another painful round of illness that started out as a simple stomach ache. She did not think much of it at the time and settled to visit a dispensary where she was diagnosed with food poisoning.

“I do not know what those drugs triggered because next thing I knew I was throwing up incessantly and a visit to the hospital ended up with me being booked to see a gastrologist," she recalls.

Endoscopy and entomology tests followed and another two weeks before the next check-up. She went back before the time elapsed because she was in too much pain.

Given the severity of her condition, she was admitted and assigned a doctor, a different one from the last treatment.

“I went back to hospital on Thursday, but the specialist was only available on Wednesday. I was hurting, I was constipated and I was throwing up constantly, I was losing weight so fast and no one was telling me anything,” she continued.

The nurses’ invention and advice to seek a different doctor saw her get a different diagnosis. A colonoscopy would reveal that she had a hernia and surgery would follow in February 2018.

“I have been in pain since then, it has become a part of my life that I do not even remember how normal feels,” she said.

She narrates that for six months she was put on a fluid-only diet and her body could not hold it down. She threw up often and she had to go for more treatment.

A series of assessments revealed that she had been stitched wrongly and would need another operation.

She sought Hope in religion, it was a lie

This is when her friends and loved ones began heaping unsolicited religious advice and he was desperate enough to go.

“I was told my illness was not normal and that I had been bewitched. Out of desperation, pain, and my four-year-old daughter I gave in and we began going to churches for prayers, I went to all the big churches you hear about, but all they did was take advantage and ask for money,“ she explained.

“The bigger the offering the quicker your miracle would come, the men of God had told her."

Grace recalls almost in tears how the men of God she trusted with her life treated her. The demands were extreme and manipulative.

“They asked for money to pray for me, they are people you know, on said that the holy spirit was directing him to sleep with her for her (grace )to receive healing. It was a lie,” she narrated.

In 2018, Grace had three operations and her condition kept deteriorating even further. She stopped admissions and resorted to going for treatments on a daily basis to cut costs.

“In 2019, I was referred to a new doctor and by 2020, I had already undergone 15 surgeries. I have 3 or 4 more scheduled as we speak, “she continued.

In 2021, her situation got so bad that her friend told her it was time to try a different approach and offer a sacrifice to her ancestors.

“We visited a 'thingira' in Kiambu and I was told that my pain was as a result I owed my ancestor and I had to pay it in blood, I was told all my problems would end and my pain would cease. I should have known better, but I didn’t. I was desperate," she painfully recalls.

Being a diabetic patient meant that her wounds would take longer to heal and for two days, she bore the brunt of bleeding that went on without ceasing. Grace proceeded to the hospital but her doctor was afraid of the legal repercussions of treating a patient who had gone through FGM.

“FGM bado ipo. People are desperate and when I called my friend to inform her of my pain after FGM, she hung up on me and that was the last I heard of her,” she continued.

“In 2017, a doctor’s recommendation to stop working saw the termination of my employment and with that, my health cover. Since then I have relied on well-wishers and donations to fund my medication,” Grace said.

Grace narrates the last six years near tears. She has lost her friends, her daughter got depressed and her family is exhausted.

“Why do we keep fundraising for you, yet you do not get better, you do not die, it is better if you would just die,“ Grace says that these are words that are becoming all too familiar as she learns to live with her condition

I forgive you, but I remember the pain

Her voice breaks and her breathing is laboured as she speaks about the people who have taken advantage of her.

“To the two doctors that messed with my body and took all the money, I forgive you, but I cannot forget the pain you have caused my daughter and me unimaginable pain," she said, fighting back tears.

Appeal for help

Grace is appealing to Kenyans and well-wishers to support her as she continues with her treatment.

“I have not been able to work and I am asking them to have mercy on me. This situation has been painful and though I did not bring it on myself, I need help, my daughter and I need help to keep surviving,” she said.