Pike Lake woman returns home after serious injury while helping women in Ethiopia

DULUTH, IA -- Duluth News Tribune -- March 23, 2008- Sitting erect in a back brace in her parents' living room with the icy surface of Pike Lake shining outside the window, Lauren Swanstrom knows she's a lucky woman.

While working in Ethiopia recently, she was seriously injured in a van crash. She knows her injuries could have been worse, and she feels fortunate to have the support of so many people.

Lauren Swanstrom, 26, sits on her bed at her parents' Pike Lake home, where she is recuperating from a back injury she suffered in a van crash in Ethiopia last month. The 1999 Duluth East graduate went to Ethiopia to teach English and help women who have a condition that is caused by a difficult birth. [CLINT AUSTIN/NEWS TRIBUNE]

"It was such a humbling experience to know so many people were praying for me," said Swanstrom, 26.

She went to Ethiopia to help women who were considered outcasts for a condition they developed while giving birth. Though her work there was cut short by the accident, her passion for telling people about the women remains strong.

About four years ago, through a newsletter and an "Oprah" show, Swanstrom learned about a problem common in women in some developing countries — vesicovaginal fistula, a hole that develops between a woman's vagina and her bladder during a lengthy, obstructed labor. A fistula also can develop between the vagina and the rectum.

In either case, the result is incontinence. Women with this condition often are abandoned by their husbands and ostracized because of their foul smell and inability to have children, according to the Fistula Foundation Web site.

The condition mostly occurs in developing countries where there is a lack of obstetrical care. About 2 million women have untreated fistulas, including about 100,000 women in Ethiopia, the site said. In the United States and other developed countries, a woman probably would have a Caesarean section before a fistula would occur.

Swanstrom learned while watching "Oprah" about the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. Surgery to correct the condition has a 93 percent success rate, and the hospital has treated more than 30,000 women over 33 years, the Fistula Foundation Web site said.

The suffering of women affected by fistulas touched Swanstrom' s heart and she wanted to do something to help. "Over the last few years I've felt God has put this on my heart," she said.

Last summer, Swanstrom decided it was a good time in her life to make a change.

She went online and lined up a job teaching English at a language school for adults in Addis Ababa so she could earn a living. She quit her job in a Twin Cities domestic abuse shelter and flew to Ethiopia in September.

Her mother, Barbara Swanstrom, said she was apprehensive about her daughter living abroad for nine months, because she knew she'd miss her. "But I thought that if this is what she felt God led her to do, she should go," she said.

Swanstrom said Lauren, who was the middle of her three children, was a shy child who had a close group of friends as she grew up in Duluth. But within a few weeks of starting college, she became empowered, bold and confident, she said.

"She is so much more the extrovert now. She is very confident and she has a strong Christian faith," she said.

Barbara Swanstrom said she was impressed when her daughter decided to leave her job and friends and go to Africa to serve others.

Lauren Swanstrom attended an Episcopal church in St. Paul before she left, and she attended an Anglican church in Addis Ababa. Through the Anglican church she learned about volunteer opportunities with two organizations that help women with fistulas.

One of her volunteer jobs was befriending women at a shelter where they stayed for weeks or months while waiting for surgery. Swanstrom said she found it encouraging that the women were hopeful after all they'd been through. "It was a community of women who were all in the same boat," she said.

Swanstrom's other volunteer job was helping midwife students improve their English, which they need to know because their textbooks are in English. After the training, the women return to their home villages to help women give birth safely. The Hamlin College of Midwives is affiliated with the Fistula Hospital as part of an effort to prevent women from getting fistulas.

Swanstrom enjoyed exploring Addis Ababa and the area around it. On Feb. 9, Swanstrom and another woman from Minnesota hired a driver to take them to Lake Wenchi, a secluded lake in the mountains near Addis Ababa. They had a good time riding horses and going on a boat ride before heading home.

About 6 p.m., their driver swerved to avoid a child in the road and hit a fence. There were no seatbelts in the van and Swanstrom was thrown to the floor, breaking her left ankle and a lumbar vertebra right above the small of her back. Her friend broke her tailbone and bruised her chin.

Some men picked up Swanstrom and moved her to a van that took her to a nearby hospital. Swanstrom said she was lucky that moving her didn't cause further injuries to her spine.

During the confusion after the accident, someone stole Swanstrom's wallet, which contained information about the insurance she had bought for her trip to Ethiopia. She was able to use her cell phone to call a woman at the College of Midwives and that woman contacted her parents, who tracked down the insurance information.

Swanstrom said buying Seven Corners Inc. travel medical insurance was the best $368 she ever spent. It paid for her medical care in Ethiopia and Tel Aviv, Israel, where she was flown to have surgery on her back and ankle. Her parents flew to Tel Aviv to be with her, and the insurance company paid the travel expenses for one of them. The insurance company also had a staff person escort her home to Duluth and is paying for her follow-up medical care.

"Too many things have gone right," Swanstrom said. "I know God was watching over me. I feel very blessed and thankful."

When Swanstrom went to Ethiopia, she began writing a blog about her experiences. From the time of her accident, she went from 4,000 hits to her blog to about 11,000 now, she said. "It's the coolest thing," she said.

She believes God allowed the accident to happen to encourage other people and to make them aware of the fistula issue.

As Swanstrom recuperates at her parents' home on the shore of Pike Lake, she has plenty of time to reflect on what happened. She has been told it will take about three months for her back to heal.

She doesn't know what she'll do next, although she'd like to live and work in the Twin Cities again, she said. She might try to get a full-time teaching job, she added.

Swanstrom is a high-energy person and being incapacitated is frustrating at times. "I was living on my own in Africa," she said. "Now I can't even put on my own socks."

Ash Wednesday occurred three days before her accident. In recent years, she has made a practice of giving up or taking on something for Lent. In Africa, there was not much to give up because she lived simply.

"This year I have had to take on humility," she said. "I've had to learn the importance of interdependence. ... It's a good lesson to learn. I've had to learn to rest and to heal."