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A moving story of a male Pakistani doctor
一個巴基斯坦男醫生的感人故事
She is an illiterate woman from the tribal areas of Pakistan who almost died in childbirth a year after marrying at the age of 12. She suffered a horrific injury during labor called a fistula that left her incontinent and smelly, and for the next 13 years she was confined to her housenever stepping outside for shame at the way she was leaking wastes.
她是個目不識丁的女人,出生在巴基斯坦的部落地區。12歲時她便早早地結了婚,一年后妊娠差點死于難產。分娩時她受了重創造成了瘺管。從此，她大小便失禁渾身惡臭難聞。所以,13年來她 —直待在屋子里哪兒也不去，因為羞愧恥于見外人。
He is a famous Pakistani ob-gyn who was educated in Ireland. After spending eight years there, he returned with plans to set up a fertility clinic for rich patients and zip around in a Mercedes-Benz. But he was so shattered by the sight of women dying unnecessarily in childbirth that he decided to devote his career instead to helping impoverished women like her.
他，是巴基斯坦有名的婦產科醫生。在愛爾蘭求學8年后他回到了家鄉。他本打算回來建一所接待富人的診所，嫌了錢就買輛奔馳到處逛逛,然而看到一個個家鄉的婦女不必要地死于難產,他被深深地觸動了。于是他決定要用自己畢生的精力去幫助那些貧窮的女人——就像她。
So they met in one of the hospitals established by the doctor, Shershah Syed, and he has been helping the young woman, Ashrafi Akbar. She is scheduled to undergo a final repair of her fistula in that hospital today.
隨后，在他開的一家醫院里他們倆相遇了。他叫Shershah Syed,她叫Ashrafi Akbar.他開始馬不停蹄地幫她治療。今天，就在這家醫院里她還要進行最后一次瘺管的治療。
In this part of Pakistan, Sindh Province, there is a saying that goes: If your cow dies, that is a tragedy; if your wife dies, you can always get another.
在巴基斯坦的信德省流傳著這樣一種說法:如果你的牛死了，哭吧,那是個悲劇,如果你的妻子死了,沒關系,你還可以再娶一個。
Ashrafi，s case was typical; She tried to deliver at home with the help of an untrained birth attendant. But her pelvis wasn’t big enough to accommodate the baby’s head, so four exhausting days of labor produced nothing.
Ashrafi的情況就是一個典里例子:因為沒有條件她只能在家分娩,而為她接生的是一個沒受過正規培訓的接生婆。但Ashrafi的骨盆太小孩子的頭出不來，4天精疲力竭的折騰后什么都沒得到。
Finally, the family took Ashrafi to a clinic, and the baby was delivered dead. Then she found that she was dribbling urine and stool through her vagina. She smelled, and the salts in her urine left sores on her thighs.
最后沒有別的辦法家人只好把Ashrafi送到了一家診所,可惜孩子的生命已經保不住了。隨后Ashrafi突然發現自己流著尿，排泄物也自陰道不自禁地排出。她聞了聞,嗅到尿中的無機鹽在她的大腿上已然變酸了。
Ashrafi had heard that doctors in Karachi might be able to cure her, and she asked if someone could take her. Instead, Ashrafi’s husband divorced her. Embarrassed and humiliated, Ashrafi fell into a deep depression. She locked herself up in her parents, home and refused to see anyone-
Ashrafi聽說卡拉奇市的醫生可以治好她的病,便求人把她帶過去。可就在這時，她的丈夫同她離婚了。羞愧難當的Ashrafi陷人了徹底的沮喪中,她把自己鎖在父母的房子里從此不見客。
Thirteen years passed. Ashrafi says she didn’t leave the house once. I asked her, and a cousin of hers whom I reached by telephone, how she spent her days. The answer: sewing, caring for her sick mother and crying.
13年就這樣過去了。Ashrafi說，13年中她從沒離開過房子一次。我通過電話與她和她的堂妹取得了聯系，便問她，這些年Ashrafi都是怎樣打發日子的。她說,縫補、照願生病的母親……有時候一個人哭。
Finally, she prevailed upon her brothers to take her to Karachi, where she was examined by Dr. Shershah. At 56，he is one of his country's best-known doctors and is president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Pakistan. Three times he has been pushed out of his job, he said, for saying that resources would be better spent on education and health than on atomic weapons or F-16s.
后來她終于說服了她的兄弟們帶她去卡拉奇市，正是Shershah醫生接待了她。這時候的 Shershah已經56歲了，是巴基斯坦最有名望的醫生之一，同時也是巴基斯坦婦產醫科聯盟的主席。 他此前被免職過3次。免職原因僅僅是因為他說政府“應該把更多的資源用于改善教育和醫保，而不是用在研發原子彈或F16戰斗機上
With government support nine years ago, Dr. Shershah started a top-level maternity wing in a public hospital in Orangi, an in poverished Karachi neighborhood that by some reckonings is the largest slum in the world. The hospital now handles 6,500 deliveries a year-yes, 6,500-and accepts women from hundreds of miles away.
9年前,在政府的資助下Shershah醫生在一家公立醫院里開設了一流的婦產科分部。醫院位于奧林齊,周遭環塊極其惡劣。那不僅是卡拉奇市最艘的地段,甚至有人說那里是世界上最大的貧民窟。現在醫院每年成功助嫌65，沒錯,是65。接待的產婦中有好些是從幾百里外的地方趕來 的。
Several years ago，a half-dead woman came from Baluchistan Province by camel.
幾年前,一個奄奄一息的婦女就不遠萬里從俾路支省趕到醫院,而她的交通工具僅為一頭路蛇。
In addition to his regular work, Dr. Shershah repairs fistulas there every Sunday, and that is how he encountered Ashrafi. Her case turned out to require a series of operations because of the long wait But after six months of surgeries, she should be repaired and ready to go home by the end of this month.
除了日常工作外，Shershah醫生每個周末都要為病人們治療瘺管。正是在那里，他遇見了Ashrafi。因為耽誤了太長時間Ashrafi的病需要動一系列的手術，目前她已經傲了6個月的手術,月底就可以康復回家。
Already, the nurses say, she is different from the shy, morose young woman who arrived. Now she smiles and sometimes laughs, and she spends her days outside in the hospital courtyard, bathing in the sunlight that she missed for 13 years.
護士們說，Ashrafi已經同剛來時大不一樣了。她起初來時非常害羞又抑郁，現在她愛笑了，有時還開懷大笑。她喜歡在醫院的院子里走走，沐浴在陽光下,算是彌補自己13年不見陽光的缺憾。
