2007: Spotlight on “M”
Ray Tye was so personally moved by this case that he asked “M” to visit him in his office. There, smiling brightly, she thanked the Foundation for what they were going to do for her. The seriousness of her condition was made evident during that visit as “M” excused herself every few minutes in order to keep herself clean. We were happy to know that the first of her three major surgeries was scheduled to take place soon.
When that day came and as “M” awoke from the anesthesia, she found Ray Tye at her bedside holding her hand. In the days that followed this young woman was overcome by the kindness expressed to her by the hospital staff and by the fact that Ray Tye had come to visit her personally. She was deeply concerned, however, that she would have to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of he life but thanks to the surgical skill of her doctors this would not be the case. She could look forward to living her life as a normal woman when her three surgeries were completed. The tears in her eyes expressed her appreciation for all that was being done for her.
The following excerpt is from an article by Kevin Cullen that appeared in the Boston Globe on July 30, 2007:
When asked what she wants most, 21-year old “M” smiles shyly. “An education,” she says, sitting in her Brighton apartment. She never got past third grade. That’s when war broke out in her native Sierra Leone. When it was over a decade later, thousands of people were dead, and some, including “M” felt like they were.
She was taken from her village by rebels when she was 13…she watched them shoot three of her friends. She says sometimes she wishes the rebels shot her too. Instead they raped and brutalized her and left her for dead. She feels blessed that she didn’t get pregnant and become a “bush wife.”
But the damage to her genital area was catastrophic and beyond the skills of African doctors. A pair of doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Warren “Buzz” Becker, a gynecologist, and Kevin Loughlin, a urologist, agreed to do the complex surgeries for free. The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation agreed to pay for most everything else.
At 4 feet 7 inches, “M” looks like the schoolgirl she never was. These days she mostly stays inside, steeling herself for her third and final surgery. She is grateful for everything people have done for her, but also embarrassed. “I am most embarrassed because I have no education,” she says. “Everyone I meet in America is educated.”
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