Mercy Ship Expedition - Darkness and Light: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy! 


 "Darkness and Light" (04-05-17)
 
West Africa seems to me to be a place where superstition and witch
doctors thrive alongside western medicine and Christianity, sometimes
mixed together, never too far apart. Today, our eye team saw a
heart-wrenching example in the clinic. A little boy, maybe aged 4,
developed a fever. Malaria? Who knows? The mother took him to two
hospitals, but they didn't help him. Not sure why...maybe she couldn't
pay? So she took him to her neighbor, a witch doctor. He had the child
walk barefoot on hot coals, which burned his feet severely. He fell
down, so he burned his hands and body also. Then the witch doctor
poured acid in his eyes. Strange cure for a fever, if you ask me. Now
the mother brought her son to us, hoping that we could repair his
eyes...but they were completely destroyed.

Sometimes the darkness in this culture is very dark. I can only imagine
the anguish that that poor mom feels, seeing her son destroyed. I
wonder what the witch doctor feels. Is he so evil that the suffering he
inflicts doesn't move him, or is he so bound by superstition that he
thinks that he is doing good? There are things in this culture that I
simply don't understand. The prevalence and persistence of witchcraft
is one of them. It seems so obviously evil to me. I suppose consulting
a witch doctor is a little like a "hail Mary" in football--not likely to
help, but when you are desperate and have no other options, you try it
anyway. 

On a brighter note, another 15 people received their sight today, and 15
more are scheduled for tomorrow. 'Tis but a drop in the ocean of need,
but this ship signifies hope and help for the people of Benin, and they
know it. To end with an amusing observation: My co-worker is a very black, very
British woman from England. People from West Africa readily identify
white people as foreigners, but they are confounded by the idea of a
black foreigner. How could she not speak their language? Surely she
comes from Kenya or Uganda or somewhere. She should go home to her
tribe and learn her own language. It leads to some hilarious moments
when patients persist in turning to her to translate for them--surely
she speaks at least one of the local languages. If not Fon, then
Mina... Even the day crew that have been working with her for months
find it amusing that her native language is English.

Marilyn

Mercy Ship Expedition - Pictures of Kids: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!

"Pictures of kids" (03-27-17)

Here are some pictures of some of the kids we did surgery on last week. Thought you might like faces to go with the names.  I couldn't find a picture of Maurice and Sophie, but Jacques, Marie, and Elodie were the three kids from the one family that I mentioned, and Anna, with the broken leg, and her sister Dorcas had surgery after those three.

Marilyn

Anna and Dorcas before surgery

Anna and Dorcas going home

Dr. Wodeme - surgery

Jacques, Marie, Elodie with Papa

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

Mercy Ship Expedition - Children, Stilt Village, Dresses: One Nurse's Story

 

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!




25 March, 2017 "Children, stilt village, dresses"

Our surgeon went to the ward to visit our patients one evening and found
a mother crying. I guess they were tears of joy, because her
explanation was that her blind children had been considered cursed,
devil-possessed, in her village, so no one would allow their children to
play with hers. "Now they won't think they are cursed any more." I
tend to think about the physical limitations imposed by being
blind...but the social ramifications can be even more devastating.
Whole families can be shunned.

There's a whole village nearby which is built on stilts in the middle of
the lake. The story behind that is interesting. They were apparently
peaceful fishermen back in the day and were being captured and sold into
slavery by the voodoo-worshiping tribes around them. The voodoo people
were afraid of water, so the fishermen moved into the middle of the lake
two hundred years ago to stay safe from them, and there they remain to
this day, still fishing. Everyone has his own canoe, even the children.

Fabrics here are so colorful, with bold patterns and amazing variety.
It's true everywhere in West Africa, but seems even more so here. Women
here really know how to dress up! Hair styles, too, are creative and
diverse. Who knew you could do so many things with kinky black hair?
If I can, I'll attach a few random pictures, but I can't possibly
capture the rainbow variety in all its glory.

Marilyn 

 

Mercy Ship Expedition - Pediatric Cataract Surgery: One Nurse's Story

 
My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!

"Pediatric cataract surgery"
3/22/2017 5:23 PM
 
We have begun our two weeks of children's cataract surgery. This is
quite a bit different from adult cataract surgery. For one thing, they
are under general anesthetic instead of a local block. That requires
admitting them to the ward the day before surgery and keeping them for a
second night, after surgery. As I understand it, the technique the
surgeon needs to use is different from what they use on adults and takes
a lot longer to do. Each eye takes 45 to 60 minutes, and we do both
eyes for each child. The net result is, three children per day is about
the maximum we can do.

From a nursing standpoint, the most critical thing is teaching the
parents how to care for the eyes after surgery. That, too, is more
complicated than what we ask adults to do. The kids have to wear eye
shields and have eye drops four times a day, and they shouldn't engage
in anything strenuous or touch the eyes for two weeks--which, if you
have a two-year old, requires hawk-like parental alertness. Teaching
them all that they need to know through a translator can be challenging.
We ask them to boil water to cleanse the eyes, for instance...and to
cool the water before use. It's not necessarily obvious to them what we
mean by "wash with clean water" unless we spell it out step by step.

Our first patient was Maurice, aged 5, who was completely blind. His
eyes rolled back and forth and twitched continually. The surgeons
weren't too sure if he would have a good outcome, both because he'd been
profoundly blind for so long and because of the eye movement. But--good
news--he can see. It's a little hard to measure acuity in young
children, but when we showed him a photograph of our ship, he remarked
on the teeny-tiny people he could see in the little canoe that was in
front of the ship. We were just hoping he could see the big ship! It
was fascinating to watch how the eye movement improved over the course
of a few hours. In the morning, the eyes would wander quite a bit, but
by noon, he could really focus and hold them steady. He'll be fine.

Our second patient was his sister Sophie, age 2. She had some huge
cataracts, blind since birth. Still, her eye movements were not as
pronounced as Maurice's, and she was younger, so we were optimistic.
Sadly, it appears that she is still quite blind despite a successful
surgery and healthy-looking retinas. I guess the neural connections to
the brain just didn't develop since she never had any sight to stimulate
them. The surgeon thinks that she may gradually learn to see, at least
to some extent, over the next couple of years. I imagine I'll wonder
about her, and hopefully pray for her, for a long time.

Our third, fourth, and fifth patients were siblings whose mother was
also born with cataracts. Pretty clearly a genetic component for that
family, I'd say. Since all of them had some sight in the early years, I
think that they'll do well. They were such sweet children, everybody
was wishing that they could take one home. Momma brought them to the
ship, but she had malaria, so we sent her home and asked Poppa to come
instead. He has been so attentive and gentle with his kids, it's been a
treat to watch them all interact.

Our sixth patient was Anna, age 2. I don't know the results from her
surgery yet, but we noticed that she seemed to be dragging her left leg.
An x-ray revealed a broken femur, which is a pretty large bone to
break. If I got the story straight, the husband's family threw her or
dropped her or something about four weeks ago. She refused to walk for
three weeks, but by now the bone had partially knit together, and she
was starting to use her leg again. It was too late for surgery, or even
for casting, but the doctor cautioned the mom not to let her walk for
three more weeks, lest she bend the bone even further out of alignment
as it finished healing. She'll probably always have a limp...but maybe
she won't be blind, too.

We have two surgeons at the moment. Dr. Bob has just recently retired.
He found out that there's a huge need for surgeons to do cataract
surgery on children in Africa, so he's here to learn the technique.
Hats off to him, being willing to pick up new skills at this stage in
his career! Dr. Dan is training him this week, but Dr. Bob will be
doing children's cataracts on his own next week. It was interesting to
hear how he "just happened" to hear about Mercy Ships at a ball game, as
he sat sandwiched between a major Mercy Ships donor on one side and Don
Stevens, our founder, on the other. Gotta love those "coincidences."
 
Maybe it was a set-up...

Marilyn 

Mercy Ship Expedition - Three Good Stories: One Nurse's Story

My friend Marilyn is off on another 
Mercy Ship adventure in Africa. Those 
who followed her story before on the 
Africa Mercy know that Marilyn is a 
volunteer nurse on a hospital ship that 
sails the African coast in search of patients. 
She emails me and I share her post with you. 
I hope you enjoy!





"Three Good Stories"
 March 19, 2017  

Two cataract stories to warm your heart: 

Kabir: He arrived at the clinic for screening, but he couldn't walk.
Hearts sank, because patients have to walk up the gangway to get onto
the ship for surgery. But, Kabir is resourceful. As you can see from
the picture, he gets around pretty well, using flip-flops on his hands.
He had dense cataracts; he was a good candidate for surgery. And he got
good results; now he can see. 

Paola: She is a 20 year old student, but she was completely blind from
cataracts. She was one of our first patients this field service. She
had both cataracts removed, with wonderful results, so she now faces a
bright future with great joy.  
We've been doing cataract surgery for 15-20 patients a day. I wish I
knew the deeper story of the impact the surgery has in all of their
lives and families. It would be overwhelming, I'm sure.
 
Meanwhile, there are other surgeries also happening every day around
here. One life-changing surgery is the repair of fistulas that some
women develop after a difficult delivery. The babies are usually dead
at birth, but on top of that trauma, the woman discovers that she now
leaks urine and/or feces through the vagina. This is a socially
devastating condition, and it lasts a lifetime. Some of the women we
repair have suffered for decades and have seen a dozen doctors and
clinics seeking help, spending who knows how much money, to no avail.
 
We have a Dress Ceremony to celebrate when these ladies are ready to be
discharged after surgery. We have a beautiful dress made for each of
them, sing and dance, and share their joy as they tell their stories.
Five ladies participated in today's ceremony (not the ones in the pictures, 
since there's a delay in getting photos from the communications department
to share, but it's the same scene and similar dresses.) One of  today's ladies 
had been looking for help for 34 years, another for 17 years, a third had a 
dream of being cured on a ship, so she knew to come to us when we arrived. 
All were beautiful, joyous, and ready for a new lease on life.  

Isn't this a fantastic place?

Marilyn

(Three ladies with a Mercy nurse)

Kabir

 

Paola and a Mercy nurse