Rwandan girl with damaged spine, cured

Life has never been easy for the 18 year-old Alice Umuhoza. At the tender age of three, she developed lower back pains and could not sit or stand for a stretched period of time.Everyone in her family took it lightly and thought that it was a matter of time before everything went back to normal.This did not happen. Two years later, her condition deteriorated and she was diagnosed with scoliosis, a medical condition where a person’s spine is curved from side to side.“I had considerable pain in my lower back anytime I was upright. It got to a point where I was walking more or less bent over, with my upper torso at an angle,” Umuhoza explained.At a time she felt like an outcast and wondered why it was happening to her.“I didn’t like the fact that people always looked down on me. A number of them were curious about my condition and wanted to know what went wrong with my posture,” recalls Umuhoza. “I can vividly remember the days when I would go home withdrawn only to lock myself in the house and cry.”As much as Umuhoza made several visits to the main hospitals in the country, her condition did not improve.“Several doctors at the hospitals told me that they didn’t have the capacity to do the surgery I needed. I gave them my telephone number and hoped that they would call me just in case something came up. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” she recounts.During these trying times, Umuhoza’s sister Julienne Bikorimana, stood by her.“My sister has always stood by me. She has been a pillar of strength and a reliable shoulder for me to lean on. I am grateful to God for her,” Umuhoza says emotionally.In 2010, a German volunteer, Lucas Rosenberg picked up her story and shared it with his friends. Sooner than later, Umuhoza was connected to the German based organization; ‘A Heart for Children’ and to St. George Hospital which both offered to sponsor Umuhoza’s surger. Both well-wishers covered the surgery’s cost that amounted to Rwf 30 million.With her sister Julienne, Umuhoza travelled to Hamburg, Germany courtesy Brussels Airlines, who covered their air ticket costs too.According to Umuhoza, she felt a remarkable change immediately after her surgery. For the first time in over 15 years, she did not live in pain.“I had a sparkle in my eye. I would walk in the house and find myself grinning ear to ear. I began to enjoy the simple pleasures that I had given up,” Umuhoza says. “You don’t realise what you‘ve been missing until it’s taken from you.”Umuhoza’s inspiring life-changing surgery has boosted her self-esteem.“I have connected with new friends in Germany where I got a new ‘family’, a mother, father, brother and a sister,” she says.“I praise God everyday for Dr. Thomas Niemeyer and his wonderful team for the compassionate care they provided during my extensive four hours surgery,” she adds.“I no longer have a hunchback and I can walk straight,” she says with a big smile spread across her face.Umuhoza cannot exhaustively thank the people who made her spine surgery possible.Consequently, Dr. Thomas, (Umuhoza’s surgeon) is planning to visit Rwanda for a spine operation programme with his Rwandan colleagues. This will give a second chance at life for other Rwandans suffering from scoliosis.The future is very bright for the young Rwandan girl.“I look forward to the day when our hospitals will have the capacity to deal with specialised operations of delicate nature. This way people with similar crippling conditions like what I suffered, would get treated locally,” she says.Life is back to normal for Umuhoza; she has just received her senior six results.She is optimistic that her performance will enable her to set a government scholarship so that she can pursue a course in Management.