Mohammed's story

I write this having just arrived in the Canary Islands. Our 10 month Fields Service in the Muslim nation of Guinea has finished. I have many memories. My friends favourite story is described by her in the video above (click on the arrow to play). But one of my favorite stories comes from a Muslim man named Mohammed. I first met him in the middle of the night when the emergency alarm went off because his neck had started bleeding. A true life-threatening emergency needing immediate surgery. But that is not the only reason I remember him so vividly. It is because of what he said. Mohammed said, about us “They actually pay to come here so that people they don’t even know can be healed. Who else but God sends people like that?”  . Mohammed's story is told here by one of the ship writers, and his pictures are shown in the right hand column:

Dr. Mark Shrime, a Mercy Ships volunteer surgeon, was recently serving onboard the Africa Mercy hospital ship in Guinea.  One of Dr. Mark’s patients, Mohamed, had such a large growth on his neck that, at first glance, it seemed like a goiter. To determine the exact nature of Mohamed’s condition and to plan treatment, Dr. Mark used the diagnostic information provided by a computerized tomography (CT) scan.

Mohamed had fallen into deep despair. He explains, “As my condition worsened, the growth increased to such a size that I had difficulty eating and sleeping. My voice also became hoarse. My wife worried constantly that this condition would cause me to die.”

Another of Mohamed’s fears had already come to pass, causing the family extreme hardship. He recounts, “The lump on my neck started growing when I was in my mid-twenties. I had worked very hard to complete University studies in law, planning to have a good career in the justice department of the Guinean government. But when I could no longer hide the growth, my career stopped. I had the education and trust needed to take on significant roles, even as a Minister, but my appearance prevented any chance of promotion.” Mohamed was transferred to a local police detachment, with no contact other than the criminals he interviewed.

When Dr. Mark received the results of Mohamed’s CT scan, he was taken aback. According to Dr. Mark, “As it turned out, Mohamed’s problem was not a goiter but a cyst. The condition begins even before birth, when the thyroid gland descends from the base of the tongue through a canal called the thyroglossal duct to the neck. Usually the duct disappears after the gland descends, but sometimes small pockets, called cysts, remain. For Mohamed, and others with this condition, fluid collects in the duct cyst. The result is a visible lump.”  

Dr. Mark had never seen a cyst as large as Mohamed’s, noting that, “This condition is normal, but the growth generally remains golf ball size. Where there is access to surgery, the cysts are usually removed once they become noticeable. But for Mohamed, whose cyst was untreated for almost thirty years, it grew to an enormous size.”

Mohamed learned through bitter experience that he had no access to the treatment he needed. “I spent almost $10,000 (enough to put ten children through University) in Guinea, and other nearby countries, looking for a cure. My family and I did without many things. When I found out that I could get surgery in France, I even entered a competition to be sent to police training school there.” While Mohamed obtained the top score on the selection test, another person was awarded the scholarship to travel to France. After years of unfair treatment in the workplace and ridicule from his colleagues, this final injustice crushed Mohamed’s remaining morale. He left his job, shuttering himself inside his home.

Unemployed and feeling hopeless, Mohamed began a personal prayer vigil. Daily at 2:00 a.m., often with his wife at his side, he prayed for healing and to have his livelihood and life back.  

Mohamed believes that God answered his prayer by bringing Mercy Ships to Guinea. He recalls his remarkable experience as a patient. “Mercy Ships saved me and renewed my life. While I was waiting to hear about my surgery date, a Mercy Ships day-worker who I met at the screening continued to check on me and assured me that I would be called.  All of the volunteers for Mercy Ships were so helpful and kind. When I had my first test, the nurse was careful and made sure I was comfortable. After my surgery, I had some unexpected bleeding in the middle of the night. Within minutes, I was immediately surrounded by nurses and taken to the operating room where many doctors were waiting to fix the problem. I was back in bed sleeping within an hour!” (technically this is true as the bleeding was fixed quickly in theatre but we actually ventilated him on ICU for the next few hours and woke him up in the morning !)

Following his successful surgery, Mohamed returned home a renewed man. He was so impressed by the quality of care he received from Mercy Ships that he wrote a personal account of his entire experience to share with his friends and family. The part that still surprises him is what he learned about Mercy Ships volunteers: “They actually pay to come here so that people they don’t even know can be healed. Who else but God sends people like that?”

Written by Joanne Thibault

Edited by Nancy Predaina

Photographs by Debra Bell, Michelle Murrey, Bright Effowe

Always Learning

I love learning new things. I love new experiences. Maybe that’s why I love being a doctor because one is always learning.  No two patients are ever the same.  Science progresses and we learn new techniques for treating patients, new ways of making surgery safer. Sometimes these things are not huge technological advances but simple things such as using a Checklist to make surgery safer.

At the end of April I spent a week driving through the interior of Guinea visiting 3 different hospitals. (Click on the Page tabs above to view some pictures of the Hospitals and the scenery). I learnt a lot. Each hospital was a 2 day journey along difficult potholed roads, or dirt roads with huge craters. We were fortunate it was the end of dry season. In rainy season some of the roads become impassable, and when the large pothols are full of mud and water it is easy to become stuck! Even in a landrover. Back in November when another Mercy Ships team went this way in two landrovers, one of the landrovers actually became stuck. Thankfully the other one had a winch so could rescue the first vehicle. Driving here is not for the faint-hearted. But when you learn how to drive these roads it is actually quite fun. Oscar, our Hospital Projects Manager had spent two years living in Liberia so he knew these road conditions well. I learnt a lot by watching him.

The aim of our trip was to visit Kissidougou, Kankan and Labe hospitals to follow-up on the training we had given to Obstetric Fistula Surgeons and in two cases their anesthetists and nursing staff as well. We were not so much interested in what particular surgical techniques they had learnt but rather what principles of safe surgery (such as the Safe Surgery Checklist), whole person care and empathy they had learnt through our methods of modelling and discussing these concepts. I was humbled and amazed how much they had learnt and how diligent they had been trying to put it into practice various actions and attitudes. The culture here is described as an ‘honour / shame culture’.  So I knew our visit to their hospitals would honour them. Back home visitors to a hospital can be viewed as a burden - a ‘oh gosh who is going to look after them’ type-attitude. Not in West Africa. Visiting the surgeons honoured them to their Hospital Director, and honoured them in their community and family. But I also learnt that driving two days to visit them showed we cared. It added credibility to our training program. The training program aims to model ‘whole person care’, ‘servant-hearted leadership’ and  to instil ‘individual value and worth even for those with disfigurement or disability’. I learnt that we can model these concepts not simply by the way we treat patients and each other our ship hospital, but also by visiting the trainees in their own environment. These follow-up visits showed we don’t just teach healthcare professionals, we also care about them as individuals.

Medicine treats and cares, Education teaches and cares.

I still have much to learn about teaching medical knowledge, skills and attitudes cross-culturally in West Africa but I learnt an important lesson this week and I am very thankful.

I love the fact that life is one long learning process. It keeps me humble

An Easter Mosaic

The picture shown here is a beautiful mosaic created by Catherine Schwebel. Catherine is one of the chaplains serving on board the Africa Mercy with her husband and three children. She is an incredible artist. Many times I have bought cards with images of her paintings on them. Now she has created this beautiful mosaic picture. It has truly been a labour of love undertaken during lent. She carefully chose the image and outlined the picture. She designed the contents of the picture. The hills, the garden, the two figures, perhaps one is Mary, kneeling. The empty tomb, the angel of the Lord appearing. Catherine had in her mind’s eye the finished product. She knew what it would look like before it came into being. I didn’t. All I could see was a blank white canvass. If I looked closely I could see a faint outline of an angel, a kneeling figure. But I didn’t know the intimate details, the colours, the beauty. But week by week the mosaic took shape. One by one, Catherine selected scraps of paper. Each carefully chosen. The right colour. Actually it was more than just colour, shades and tones mattered. Then each piece was cut. Precisely. Lovingly. And finally glued in place. Not any place, but the exact place Catherine had prepared for it long ago. Long ago when she designed the mosaic.

This mosaic is a reminder of you and me. Each one of us carefully chosen and formed by God. Each piece in the mosaic is different but each is carefully chosen, designed, and set in place. Not any old place, but a specific place. And together all the pieces make up a beautiful picture. If one was missing the picture would be incomplete. So it is with us. Each of us is set in place by God and if one of us was missing, our world would be incomplete. My world is, here on the Africa Mercy. Your world is wherever you are….your workplace, your family, your church. Each one of us is significant, made in the image of God, chosen to reflect Gods beauty. Individually we reflect in part, together we reflect the whole. God knew what he was doing when he made you. Before the full picture was finished , he chose you and made you specifically, lovingly, uniquely. No one else can replace you. He set you in place. You are valuable to him. You are valuable to your world. To the people around you.

This Easter, do you know your significance and your worth before God, the God that died for you and rose again to give you new life? If you don’t believe what I say, ponder the following statements from the bible:

Acts 17 verses 26 & 27 says God

…determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live

Psalm 139  verse 13 – 16 says about God

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

…I am fearfully and wonderfully made

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together….your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be

Esther 4 verse 14 tells us

And who knows that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.