Nyan bin Musa, 70 years old (photo 1) is one of Langkawi's poor and needy. He had a urine catheter in his penis for 2 years straight!
Nyan was admitted to the Langkawi General Hospital 4 years ago for some medical problems. When he was discharged, he went home with the urine catheter still attached. His eldest son, an odd job worker, took him to the nearby government clinic to have it changed every 2 or 3 weeks. Nobody in Nyan's family took any initiative to ask the doctors why this catheter has to be there for so long.
When I met and interviewed Nyan, he broke down and cried. He said that he had prayed so hard to have the catheter removed. According to Nyan's son, his father wore the catheter everyday and even when he worked his garden, digging and what nots, Nyan would just flip the urine bag over one shoulder and worked like that.
I then suggested that Nyan be admitted to the Langkawi General Hospital to see what can be done . Nyan was dressed in a minute and off we went.
Nyan stayed a total of 5 days in the male surgical ward. On day 1, Nyan suggested that the catheter be removed to see if he could urinate normally. The catheter was removed and 15 minutes later, Nyan felt the need to pee. However all he could manage was just a small amount and this went on for some 3 hours. All of a sudden, Nyan groaned in pain and asked for the catheter to be reinserted as his stomach was swelling.
On day 2, Nyan said to me that if nothing can be done, he wanted to go home as there was no one to look after his ailing wife (photo 2). But I encouraged him that since he was already at the hospital, why not wait a while more to see what else could be done.
Two surgeons attended to Nyan. One of them said that a urine catheter should not be inserted for more than 6 months. In Nyan's case, there was some infection, therefore the pain and because the catheter has been there for so long, Nyan's brain could not instruct his bladder to urinate normally, therefore Nyan's brain had to be retrained.
A rubberband was then tied halfway down the catheter and this stop the flow of urine from the bladder. It was only released whenever Nyan had the need to urinate. This method went on till the 5th day. When I visited Nyan on this day, he was sitting on a chair next to his bed and there was no sign of the catheter! He happily said that he could urinate normally and that the doctors had discharged him.
Photo 3 shows Nyan smiling happy to be home and freed of wearing the catheter at last!
Photo 2 shows Nyan's ailing wife. She is bedridden and though she looks so helpless, she is still very alert and not hard of hearing. Two feet from her mattress, is a hole cut in the floorboard and to which a squat toilet was installed. To this she drags herself, whenever she need to answer the call of nature and to take her baths. As there is no piping to the ground, Nyan scoop up whatever comes down and bury it somewhere else.
The kampung people tries to help in whatever ways they can, but whenever I could, I would also send foodstuffs and other cooking essentials to help. I really love this work!
Vicki Mah, Social Worker
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