When a white bump began to swell around baby Emmanuel’s ear, his concerned mother had no idea what to do.
She took the infant to a local hospital in Northern Sierra Leone, where she learned that he had lymphangioma, a benign tumor that can cause disfigurement — but there are no maxillofacial surgeons in the West African country, and area doctors couldn’t do more than prescribe pain medication. Manteneh and her husband, Yirah, were financially unable to travel elsewhere for Emmanuel’s care, and they worried about social rejection in his future.
It was a ship that saved the day. The Global Mercy, the world’s largest purpose-built civilian hospital ship, brought volunteer medical professionals and state-of-the-art equipment to Sierra Leone, allowing the then-3-year-old to get the surgery he needed to remove the tumor. The vessel is one of two commanded by Mercy Ships, an international nonprofit that provides free surgical care to those with little access.
Emmanuel and Yirah post-surgery.
“The entire community was very happy for my son’s surgery,” Yirah said in a statement on Mercy Ships’ website, adding: “People around us were saying that Emmanuel is newborn!”
As sweetly as his story ended, Emmanuel’s struggles unfortunately aren’t rare. Five billion people worldwide lack access to safe and affordable surgical care, according to a 2015 study — and access is at its worst in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where 9 out of 10 people can’t get care.
It’s this void that Mercy Ships aims to help fill. Since the organization’s inception in 1978, it’s provided health care services to over 2.8 million people, performing more than 121,000 “life-changing or lifesaving surgical procedures,” Kerry Peterson, senior vice president for the U.S. National Office, told Nice News. “While surgeries are an everyday occurrence on board our ships, it is a life-changing experience for each patient who walks down the gangway.”
Bringing Relief to Africa’s Medical Deserts
While Mercy Ships has offices around the world, its vessels dock solely in Africa, a decision driven by the magnitude of need on the continent. According to Peterson, almost 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living in a medical desert.
“In fact, every year, 16.9 million people die due to the lack of surgical care, a death toll greater than that from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined,” he noted. “Mercy Ships partners with the governments of the countries it serves, focusing on regions with the greatest need for surgical care. We work with local health ministries to assess needs and plan field services that best fit the needs of each country.”
As for why they come via ship? Nearly half of the global population lives near a coast, so the Global Mercy and its sister ship, the Africa Mercy, give surgeons the best chance of reaching those who need care most.
Plus, Peterson says a ship is the “ideal platform” as it brings together every type of discipline required. “From the pharmacy and radiology departments to the ICU and simulation lab for training opportunities, our vessels are mobile hospitals containing all the facilities needed for safe surgery,” he said.
To make the whole operation happen, over a thousand volunteers from dozens of countries join forces to lend their services. It’s not just medical professionals who come aboard — each ship’s crew includes mariners, finance managers, dining room staff, and many other skilled members.
While the nonprofit provides plenty of much-needed medical care, it also works to accomplish a broader goal: helping to strengthen health care infrastructure in the nations it serves. Although the vessels only stay in port for 10 months at a time, Mercy Ships often partners with local governments for as long as five years.
“During the course of those five years, we answer the direct need for surgical care as well as develop health care systems by training local health care professionals to build strengthened care systems for the future,” Peterson explained.
A Universal Impact
Mercy Ships’ positive impact on families like Emmanuel’s is its primary goal — but that impact also extends to the volunteers on board the ships, many of whom rediscover passion and meaning in their life through their service.
Take Angie Rozek, for example. After becoming a travel nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic, she quickly burned out and considered leaving the field entirely — and given that one study found that 100,000 nurses left the workforce during that time, many due to stress and burnout, Rozek would have been far from the first to do so.
But then she joined Mercy Ships as an ICU nurse, and not only reconnected with her love of the field, but also reignited a sense of purpose in her life. And she’s not alone. Merryl Mackenzie, a 65-year-old from Australia who now serves as hospital director on the Africa Mercy, has volunteered for the nonprofit since 2007, and it was the program that enabled her to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a missionary nurse.
Josefin Tapper, an anesthesia team leader from Sweden, completed her eighth trip with the nonprofit last year. “Once you’ve seen the inequality between the countries where I come from versus the access to health care (in sub-Saharan Africa), I just couldn’t go home. I couldn’t stay home,” she said on the Mercy Ships website. “I had to come back and keep working on just making the countries we work in a better place for both patients and health care professionals.”
RELATED: US Navy Building First New Hospital Ships in 35 Years — See What They’ll Look Like
Share to:
