Horace Owiti Opiyo, known as Forence, from Kibigori, Kenya, at first didn’t think much of a cyst that appeared on his genitals in 2006 when he was just 10-years-old.
An initial procedure removed the growth in 2007 but the problem re-emerged years later. The 20-year-old was later diagnosed with elephantiasis in his genitals, meaning they were swelling to 20 times the average size.
Overtime, the cyst caused Forence’s scrotum and penis to grow to almost a metre long.
Forence eventually had to drop out of school because his testicles grew so large that he could no longer wear clothes or walk easily. Forence began spending more time at the home he shared with his brother Eliza and elderly grandmother, Salina.
In a desperate attempt to help Forence, neighbour, Duncan Otieno, took shocking photographs of the boy’s genitals and posted them on Facebook with a plea for help. The post went viral overnight and reached the Kisumu county Governor’s wife, Olivia Ranguma, who talked asked a doctor to assess Forence’s condition. An ambulance was sent for him straight away. Doctors at Jaramogioginga Odinga Hospital examined Forence and diagnosed him with Scrotal elephantiasis.
Dr Emmanuel Benge explained: ‘It’s a condition in the medical language called lymphedema where you have swelling of the tissues. ‘In this case it’s his genitalia, so it’s something called elephantiasis.’ Scrotal elephantiasis can be caused by a mosquito bite injecting larvae into the bloodstream.
The larvae mature into invasive parasitic worms, which block up the body’s drainage system causing a lymphedema, or tissue swelling, and thickening of the skin. Scans showed that nestled deep within Forence’s scrotum, were two healthy testicles.
His urinary tract was withdrawn in the folds that surround it. The hospital scheduled two operations; the first to debulk the scrotum and get rid of the excess mass and the second to reconstruct the penis and fashion it into a more usual shape and size.
Forence said: ‘I was just happy to have the operation, I wasn’t afraid though.’ Thankfully for Forence, the surgery was a resounding success. He said: ‘When I got up I was surprised that my body was so light. All the heaviness had gone.
‘I’m swimming now. I couldn’t go anywhere near the water because of the heaviness of that thing. ‘Now I can run and I can play football. Now I’m free!’
And on top of that, several months later, Forence also found out that he could still one day be a father. He said: ‘I’m trying as much as possible to build myself up so that I can have a wife. But the next step I want to take is to get an education. ‘Who knows what will happen in the future?’
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