A mother’s five-year wait for the surgery her son needed.
Adapted from a story by Luke Catena. Photographs by Luke Catena.
Grace had been told her infant son could be helped. Then she had to take him home and wait.
Ezadin was born with a pronounced cleft lip and palate in Muru, a village in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. Across this remote region, rugged hills rise above open plains, and the rains can turn roads into deep mud. Grace began looking for help while her son was still a newborn. Her local clinic in Muru referred them to Mother of Mercy Hospital.
For a family raising a child with a visible cleft, even an ordinary encounter with neighbors or friends can be difficult. An adult may look a little too long, then turn away. Another child may point, laugh or ask a question without understanding its sting. A mother can find herself watching people’s faces, hoping they will welcome her child, worrying about the day when her child begins to notice their reactions, too.
For a young boy like Ezadin, the hope can be as simple as joining a game without having to explain his face.
But the care Ezadin needed was still out of reach.
At Mother of Mercy in Gidel, families gather along shaded verandas beside a dusty courtyard. Dr. Tom Catena, an American missionary surgeon who has served in Nuba since 2008, works alongside local nurses and other trained Nuba health workers. He told Grace that surgery was possible. But the specialists Ezadin needed had not yet arrived.
For a doctor, knowing what could help a child while being unable to provide it can be a painful limit. Dr. Catena could offer Grace a place on the waiting list. He could not yet offer her son the operation.
Grace returned to Muru. Her baby grew into a five-year-old boy. Then, in 2026, word came to Grace that Dr. Bill Rhodes had arrived in Gidel.
An award-winning plastic surgeon based in Kapsowar, Kenya, Dr. Rhodes had spent more than two decades caring for patients in Africa. He brought the experience that could finally turn Grace’s search for help into treatment for her son.
After receiving the news of Dr. Rhodes arrival, Grace and Ezadin traveled three hours by motorbike to Mother of Mercy. Dozens of other parents also brought children who needed Dr. Rhodes’s skilled care. This time, Ezadin was seen immediately by the specialist they had been waiting for.
The arrival of a specialist can bring relief to a whole hospital team. Families who once had to go home can now receive treatment. For staff working daily with needs they cannot always meet, helping a family finally receive care can be deeply rewarding.
Grace entrusted Ezadin to Dr. Rhodes, who performed the lengthy surgery. He could now offer the help this mother had sought for five years. For a surgeon, there can be profound joy in putting years of training to work for a child with so much of life ahead of him.
Afterward, Grace was thrilled with the result. The change she had sought since Ezadin’s birth was now visible in her son’s face.
There is also hope in what that change can mean in the years ahead: more ease among other children, greater confidence, and a mother able to worry a little less. Ezadin has always deserved that welcome.
African Mission Healthcare donors help make this care possible by sustaining Mother of Mercy’s staff and medical supplies and supporting Dr. Rhodes’s visits to the Nuba Mountains. Your generosity helps bring specialized care within reach of families who have waited far too long.
For Grace, the journey that began with a newborn and a question had finally brought her son to the care he needed.
Hear more from Dr Bill Rhodes
Meet the surgeon who cared for Ezadin. Join Dr. Rhodes on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at noon Eastern / 9 a.m. Pacific for From Surgical Deserts to Centers of Hope, a conversation about expanding access to surgical care in Africa.