ON the outskirts of Mufulira in a compound called Kawama East lives 28-year-old Elizabeth Changa who has been lying on a mattress, most of the time face down, for the last 18 years.

The fourth born child of the late Davisnado Changa and Godfreda Katamba, Elizabeth was born and grew up a healthy child till tragedy struck. What was meant to be a routine vaccination for school-going children changed her life forever, leaving her paralysed and unable to do anything.

It all started when a team of medical personnel had gone to administer polio and measles vaccination to the pupils at Kawama Primary School. Little did Elizabeth know that the vaccination injection would change her life forever.

In an interview, Elizabeth shares her 18-year ordeal and how her current situation has left her helpless.

"In 1990, while I was at Kawama Primary School, we were being given polio and measles vaccinations. I felt the usual pain we all feel when given an injection. The next day my left arm where the vaccine was administered was swollen. I developed a sore, which looked like I had been burnt. It was very painful. It (sore) took close to three weeks to heal. As time went by, I lost feeling in my arm and I would drop things every time I was given something to hold," she explained.

As time passed, both her arms stopped functioning and she eventually lost muscle in both her legs.

"I suddenly started experiencing loss of muscle power on the left arm and with time I could not do things normally; I was unable to hold cups, plates or other items as they kept falling off my hand unintentionally. Later, my right arm stopped functioning as well. Later in the same year, I started limping and had loss of balance due to the developing weakness in both my legs," Elizabeth said.

Doctors at the hospital could not detect anything, even after conducting tests. they gave her medication but her condition continued deteriorating.

"At this time my condition got worse and I could not do anything. All I could do was sit and crawl. My mother then took me to the clinic but we were referred to Kamuchanga Hospital where they conducted tests but there was nothing in my blood. After undergoing all the necessary tests, doctors still could not find the cause of my problem but warned us that I could develop TB in future. I was not given any medication and was discharged after a week; despite taking this medication my condition continued deteriorating," she said.

Her mother was advised to take her to Dagama School for the handicapped in Luanshya.
"After being discharged, mother took me to Dagama School for the handicapped in Luanshya but was refused admission without a letter from a church. Later during the year, I was admitted to Kitwe Central Hospital for a week and medical personnel there recommended I seek physiotherapy. Every time I was given medicine, I would bleed profusely. While in hospital, a nurse advised my mother to take me to Chinese doctors as nothing more could be done for me," she explained.

Life became more difficult and challenging for the family as her father who had earlier been dismissed from ZCCM Mufulira mine decided to separate from his family and left for Lusaka, leaving his seven children in the custody of their unemployed mother.

"We were advised to go to the mine hospital but unfortunately, mother could not afford and we had no relatives working for the mine. Being a single parent, mother got preoccupied with selling charcoal and firewood to help raise money for our upkeep and paying school fees for the other children," she explained.

In 1998 Elizabeth faced a huge drawback, which left her in the current situation she is, with little or no hope of ever sitting up or walking again.

"My condition got worse as I was not able to do anything. I was confined to bed. I eventually developed bedsores from waist to the legs. At this point I could not even sit, the only thing was to sleep.

The only other time I had visited a hospital was in 2005 when I suffered from malaria and was admitted to Ronald Ross but by then I was already bedridden. Since 1998, I have not been able to do anything. My legs feel heavy and my arms feel dry and lifeless. I answer the call of nature just here (on the mattress)," she lamented.

Elizabeth is bitter with what had happened to her considering she was a healthy child before the tragedy struck but has accepted her situation.

"I am very bitter about the whole thing. I was a normal healthy child who did things every other child my age could do, but now I am in this state. I have accepted that I am disabled but I am not happy because I had to stop school and all my dreams are shattered," said a visibly emotional Elizabeth.

She appealed to well-wishers to help her get specialists' treatment with the hope of being able to walk again.

"I pray that someone can help me by paying for my treatment. If that will be too much, maybe help us in any way. It has really been difficult for my mother, especially being a single parent and there are times she finds herself in debt. I believe I will be ok. I would like to go back to school as long as I have the strength," Elizabeth appealed.

And Elizabeth’s mother Godfreda Katamba said every time she looked at her daughter, it made her cry as she was a perfectly healthy child who's life had wasted away.

"She was a perfectly healthy child who did everything girls her age could do, but looking at her now makes me cry as her life has just wasted away. I have to do everything for her from feeding her, changing her beddings and bathing her as she has lost control of her bladder and bowels," she lamented.

Asked on whether she had approached the school authorities concerning her daughter's condition, she said she had not thought of it at that time.

"I never approached the school after the incident, maybe it was ignorance. I was confused and the only thing that came to my mind was to take her to the hospital for treatment," she said.

And Dr Gilbert Mukuka who had assessed Elizabeth described her condition as muscular dystrophy a condition associated with muscle wasting.

"She is with some restrictions able to lift her arms but not beyond her shoulders. She cannot hold anything with her hands because of the contractures that have formed on both hands. Her legs are very stiff and cannot be folded on the knee joints or on the ankle,” Dr. Mukuka said.