Fighting Fistula

Overview

It takes 18 hours in a jeep to reach the distant, Himalayan district of Bajhang in the far west of Nepal. But that won’t deter Dr. Mohan Chandra Regmi. He is the country’s leading fistula surgeon, repairing tears in women’s bladders that can cause them to uncontrollably leak urine.

Dr Regmi is at the forefront of combating an alarming trend. Ten years ago, the majority of fistula cases were obstetric, or caused by prolonged obstructed child birth. But today, over half of Dr Regmi’s patients come to him with a new kind of fistula. Iatrogenic fistula is caused by surgical errors. This trend is global in scale. Across South Asia, the driving force is hysterectomies and many impoverished women borrow money to fund these operations. Bad results mean not only physical and psychological trauma but also crippling debt. 

This film follows Dr Regmi as he and a team of surgeons journey to Bajhang to conduct 50 free corrective surgeries over an intense three-day period. In tandem, the film will feature one of Mohan’s patients, documenting the before, during, and after of her corrective surgery. Through both Dr Regmi and his patient’s story, the film will dig into what is driving the rise in botched hysterectomies and resulting fistula in South Asia. The film ultimately hopes to expose the patriarchal cracks in the region’s fast-growing and highly lucrative healthcare industry.