Stephanie's Mercy Ship Blog!

Recently I got to work in screening the patients when they first come to the ship. I got to hear their stories of how they came to have their illnesses. This was an incredible experience. They come in scared and unsure, and I got the opportunity to welcome them and try to help them be at ease. One story that really stood out to me was of this little boy and his father. His father told me that the child's mother did not want him to come. Patients often tell me that they have been told and think Mercy Ships steals people's organs or kills people on the ship. For how could a huge hospital come as a ship and why would they offer free surgeries without expecting anything in return? Especially in this country, things are not given for free. Despite these rumours, the boy's father brought him anyways in faith that we could help in some way. The love for his son was very touching and evident. The boy of about 8 had a severely contracted, deformed arm simply due to an IV infusi

Ward Updates This past month has been tough in our Women’s Health ward. We have taken patients with only a 20% chance of success for fistula repair. Most surgeons would not even consider operating on these women, but one of our wonderful surgeons wanted to give them that chance anyways. The reason for the success rate being so low, is that there has been too much damage done during childbirth. One woman had her baby’s head stuck outside her vagina for seven days causing a lot of tissue death to the uterus and bladder. Another woman had a hole so big in her uterus that her uterus actually prolapsed through that hole. To get the best chance of success, the doctor takes some of the muscle of the thigh and brings it up to create more blood supply and support to the site of injury.  The surgeon also takes a fat graft of the inner thigh to also add support. It was hard to see these young girls with so much damage done to their bodies. It was even more heart breaking when some of the surg