The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
SOBBING is all what a 14-year-old boy’s mother who declined to be named could do as she narrates how her son born in 2008 lost his nose to a giant rat in a story that she says is stranger than fiction and shrouded in a mystery.
“I gave birth to my boy in 2008 with all his facial features in place.
Six months later when I was home in the morning and the baby was asleep, I heard a sharp cry from the bedroom and I dashed into the room only to find a giant charcoal grey rat devouring my son’s nose.
It was a different type of rat — a squirrel size and I think those types of rats were moving about as it was isikhathi sendlala (drought period) so they were looking for food.
I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said after her son recently had a life-changing free surgery that corrected the damaged nose.
On hearing her, she said, the monster rat ran away but had eaten the whole nose of her baby leaving two scary openings.
The baby had to be hospitalised for two weeks at Mpilo Central Hospital but nothing much could be done than treating the wounds leaving permanent scars and a deformed nose.
Mpilo Central Hospital
After the incident, she said her family tried to bait the rat but to no avail.
“I was admitted to hospital with the baby and people at home tried to hunt it down for two weeks but it would not eat the bait although it was still in the house.
My brother then used meat laced with poison and the rat died,” she said.
She said some visiting Cuban doctors told her that the journey to reconstruction was long as the baby was still under a year old.
“They said he was still young and had they tried reconstruction then, he would grow but the nose would remain very small. I tried to seek help in Harare in 2010 and I was told the same thing.
I was told to bring him when he turned 14,” she said.
True to their word, the doctors from Operation of Hope that assist children with cleft lip and palate by offering free surgery returned to Zimbabwe and she received that life-changing phone call which was inviting her son to Mpilo for his nose reconstruction.
“We had been waiting for 14 years to get this surgery to fix his nose.
So, when they called me to bring my son, I was happy because my son has been suffering a lot from constant nose bleeds all these years.
He also has been on the receiving end of stigma owing to his looks such that when he was in primary school, I was called several times after an attack from other learners as they were not used to his looks.
It disturbed his learning a lot then but now that he is in Form Two it is much better and he had accepted that this is the way he was going to look for a very long time and was free with people telling them how he was injured,” she said.
The boy who underwent surgery two weeks ago is recovering from home and is still using his mouth to breathe.
He is due for another surgery in May 2023 to complete the process in order for him to breathe properly.
The mother said she was still to come to terms with the incident that occurred 14 years ago as it was unheard of that a human being could be eaten by a rat, saying rats were known to eat bits of food, furniture and clothing and not human flesh.
She said she was a devout Christian who sought divine intervention as she prayed for her child to get better despite the issues being more supernatural than anything else.
She said the surgery marked a new era of his life.
“It’s a relief considering that now I know he will attend school without any problems of stigma.
The operation saw two of his ribs being used to create the structure of the nose and a patch from his forehead was used to create the rest of the nose,” she said.
She encouraged parents with children who have some form of defect caused by injuries or even congenital, to seek help and not give up on their children.
“This is one of the biggest opportunities I have had with my son where surgery was performed for free.
I am very grateful to the team of doctors under Operation of Hope.
If it was not because of them, I would still be crying daily, and him being a teenager, he was now starting to be conscious about his looks but all that had been erased after he got operated on,” she added.
She said other options for the surgery were available but outside Zimbabwe but was unable to foot the costs.
Jennifer Trubenbach, CEO and President of Operation of Hope Worldwide who were offering the free surgeries said the boy had been given a new chance to face the world.
Jennifer Trubenbach
“He lost his nose after a rodent chewed his nose off. So, we were able to take forehead skin and we were able to fashion a brand-new nose and we took cartilage from his rib and we were able to make the shape of a nose.
He had two surgeries to do that.
He is a whole new kid because he blends in now and is excited to go back to school,” she said.
She said delays in seeking help for children was caused by issues associated with costs that many parents couldn’t afford. Operation of Hope who are in their 33rd mission in Zimbabwe said their mission was affected by Covid-19 restrictions on movement.
Trubenbach said there could be many children seeking the life changing operations but traveling to health centres from rural communities could be a challenge.
— @NyembeziMu
