(单词翻译:单击)
A moving story of a male Pakistani doctor
一个巴基斯坦男医生的感人故事
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.
她是个目不识丁的女人,出生在巴基斯坦的部落地区。12岁时她便早早地结了婚,一年后妊娠差点死于难产。分娩时她受了重创造成了瘘管。从此,她大小便失禁浑身恶臭难闻。所以,13年来她 —直待在屋子里哪儿也不去,因为羞愧耻于见外人。
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,是巴基斯坦有名的妇产科医生。在爱尔兰求学8年后他回到了家乡。他本打算回来建一所接待富人的诊所,嫌了钱就买辆奔驰到处逛逛,然而看到一个个家乡的妇女不必要地死于难产,他被深深地触动了。于是他决定要用自己毕生的精力去帮助那些贫穷的女人——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.
随后,在他开的一家医院里他们俩相遇了。他叫Shershah Syed,她叫Ashrafi Akbar.他开始马不停蹄地帮她治疗。今天,就在这家医院里她还要进行最后一次瘘管的治疗。
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传着这样一种说法:如果你的牛死了,哭吧,那是个悲剧,如果你的妻子死了,没关系,你还可以再娶一个。
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的情况就是一个典里例子:因为没有条件她只能在家分娩,而为她接生的是一个没受过正规培训的接生婆。但Ashrafi的骨盆太小孩子的头出不来,4天精疲力竭的折腾后什么都没得到。
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.
最后没有别的办法家人只好把Ashrafi送到了一家诊所,可惜孩子的生命已经保不住了。随后Ashrafi突然发现自己流着尿,排泄物也自阴道不自禁地排出。她闻了闻,嗅到尿中的无机盐在她的大腿上已然变酸了。
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听说卡拉奇市的医生可以治好她的病,便求人把她带过去。可就在这时,她的丈夫同她离婚了。羞愧难当的Ashrafi陷人了彻底的沮丧中,她把自己锁在父母的房子里从此不见客。
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年就这样过去了。Ashrafi说,13年中她从没离开过房子一次。我通过电话与她和她的堂妹取得了联系,便问她,这些年Ashrafi都是怎样打发日子的。她说,缝补、照願生病的母亲……有时候一个人哭。
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.
后来她终于说服了她的兄弟们带她去卡拉奇市,正是Shershah医生接待了她。这时候的 Shershah已经56岁了,是巴基斯坦最有名望的医生之一,同时也是巴基斯坦妇产医科联盟的主席。 他此前被免职过3次。免职原因仅仅是因为他说政府“应该把更多的资源用于改善教育和医保,而不是用在研发原子弹或F16战斗机上
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,在政府的资助下Shershah医生在一家公立医院里开设了一流的妇产科分部。医院位于奥林齐,周遭环塊极其恶劣。那不仅是卡拉奇市最艘的地段,甚至有人说那里是世界上最大的贫民窟。现在医院每年成功助嫌65,没错,是65。接待的产妇中有好些是从几百里外的地方赶来 的。
Several years ago,a half-dead woman came from Baluchistan Province by camel.
几年前,一个奄奄一息的妇女就不远万里从俾路支省赶到医院,而她的交通工具仅为一头路蛇。
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医生每个周末都要为病人们治疗瘘管。正是在那里,他遇见了Ashrafi。因为耽误了太长时间Ashrafi的病需要动一系列的手术,目前她已经傲了6个月的手术,月底就可以康复回家。
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.
护士们说,Ashrafi已经同刚来时大不一样了。她起初来时非常害羞又抑郁,现在她爱笑了,有时还开怀大笑。她喜欢在医院的院子里走走,沐浴在阳光下,算是弥补自己13年不见阳光的缺憾。