Story of Ramatu

Ramatu's  facial tumor started to develop seven years ago when she was 12.  It is very common for a child who has any sort of physical deformity to be thrown out of the house and Ramatu was no exception.  Her parents abandoned her and she went to live on the streets of Freetown.  Medical care here is virtually nonexistent, so Ramatu just resigned herself to life of begging and waiting until the tumor became so large that either she suffocated or starved to death. 

Then she heard that Mercy Ships was coming to Sierra Leone; she queued up with thousands of others for an initial screening.  She was told that if the tumor was benign, she could be helped and was given an appointment card to come on board for a CT Scan (the only one in West Africa)!  Then came the good news that she would receive the surgery...from one of the best maxfax surgeon's in the world, Dr. Gary Parker.

Mainly because of superstition, Ramatu has lived as an outcast for the past seven years, an untouchable; so when she arrived in Admissions and someone placed their hand on her shoulder, looked into her eyes, and told her the crew would do their very best to help her, she was incredibly moved. 

Ramatu's transformation is still a work in progress, but you can see her bright smile of hope.

Celebration of Sight

These are some images from the "Celebration of Sight" that is held every couple of weeks for Mercy Vision patients.  The ophthalmologists are on board for 2-3 weeks at a time and perform up to 25 cataract surgeries a day !  New doctors rotate in and by the end of the field service in Sierra Leone thousands will have received sight.  You can imagine the celebratory joy of these people some of which had been blind for years and after a ten minute operation have their sight restored!   

Timba's Story

Timba is eleven years old and has a huge, bright smile as wide as Texas and eyes that stream out joy.  He is always happy to see you and never seems to be down even though he's been in the hospital for three months.  Timba was born with severly clubbed feet; his toes were curled into his heals and his ankles twisted so badly that he literally walked on them.  Timba has never been to school or played with children outside of his family because in this society anyone with a deformity is a social outcast.  I'm sure he is a tribute to his family because dispite all the social pressures they have faced, somehow they have infused him with joy and confidence. 

He came to Mercy Ships at the beginning of the outreach in March and after several operations he's taking his first steps and miraculously seeing his toes for the first time.



Hall Races - Yeah, I have to look both ways before exiting my office!

Timba is leaving this week and everyone is going to miss him, but we are confident his future will be as bright as his smile!