Marcella Roenneburg said she does not think Baltimore rush-hour traffic is that bad.
After four trips to some of the poorest nations in Africa to mend the bodies and lives of outcast women, she said it takes a lot to upset her anymore.
“So what if there?s a traffic jam? A lot of things in life get put into perspective, and you really appreciate the things you have,” she said.
“I told [my daughter] ?The luckiest day in your life was when you were born in America.? ”
Roenneburg spends several weeks at a time performing surgery on African women, repairing a type of internal tearing that occurs during difficult childbirth when no medical attention is available. The injury, called fistula, causes incontinence and infections and in most countries makes women ritually unclean ? no one can touch or employ them.
In the United States, where difficult pregnancies end up in Cesarean sections, the injury is virtually unheard of, except for charity appeals and nonprofit work like Roenneburg performs.
“Being pregnant in Africa is a very dangerous thing,” she said.
A surgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore City, she has established a charitable foundation through the Catholic hospital to help pay for her supplies during these trips, where she might treat up to 100 women.
Joan Fowler, 60, of Ellicott City, used her birthday this year to benefit Roenneburg?s work.
“I decided I didn?t want any more things,” she said. “I had read about Dr. Roenneburg, and I was just captivated by what she was doing.”
Fowler, a retired English and journalism teacher, had guests donate to the fund, raising about $1,500, which paid for four surgical procedures, Mercy spokesman Dan Collins said.
“It really feels much better than getting presents,” she said.
“I usually get gift certificates, but I don?t need anything, so I?m very happy.”
An estimated 2 million African women have this condition, and Roenneburg likened her ability to help a few of those women to the poetic essay by Loren Eisley about a child throwing beached starfish back into the sea.
“When you look at the numbers it feels that way,” she said, referring to the boy in the poem.
“If you look at before-and-after pictures of these women, some of them describe themselves as walking death. When we meet them, they are very depressedand starving, generally. But when you?re there and changing that life, it?s so rewarding.”
Ideally, she said she would like to see these nations begin educating people about the dangers of early marriage for young girls, but most don?t have the money and many cultures regard the injury as a judgment from God for some past wrong.
