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Mercy Ships surgery for three-year-old girl with dangerous facial tumour

19 January 2024

Mercy Ships

A YOUNG girl born with a tumour that grew so rapidly on her face that it threatened to suffocate her has had life-saving surgery from the Christian charity Mercy Ships.

The girl, Umu (above), now aged three, was born in Sierra Leone, where there was no maxillofacial surgeon able to carry out the operation, although she was supported by the children’s hospital in Freetown. The tumour was putting increasing pressure on her airway and preventing her eating.

Her mother, Yei, said: “I was afraid to see the tumour on her face. People would ask so many questions about what was wrong with Umu. I didn’t have answers, because I didn’t know, either. I feared Umu would die. Now, I feel like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”

When a Mercy Ships hospital ship, the Global Mercy, docked in Freetown, Yei took Umu there. A volunteer surgeon with Mercy Ships, Dr Gary Parker, said that, without surgery, “She was at very high risk of suffocation with continued growth of the tumour.”

Mercy Ships says that millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa need treatment that they are unable to get in their home country. A 2018 study estimated that more than 115 million children were in need of surgery in the region. People in the western sub-Saharan region have the highest surgical needs in the world.

Nine out of ten people lack access to safe, affordable surgical care when they need it, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery reports. A survey of four low-income countries, including Sierra Leone, suggested that about 19 per cent of children had a surgically treatable condition.

The chief medical officer of Mercy Ships International, Dr Mark Shrime, said: “Millions of parents and families need safe, timely, and affordable surgical and anaesthetic care for their loved ones. Without it, they face death or a long-term disability.

Mercy ShipsUmu, before her life-saving operation, with a member of the Mercy Ships medical team

“We are working proactively with governments across sub-Saharan Africa to identify and help fill the gaps in surgical care. Our structured plans focus on strengthening surgical care systems by investing in health-care professionals, the infrastructure, the equipment, and the systems needed to have lasting impact on the nations that host us.”

Mercy Ships trains doctors and surgeons in the countries that it visits, besides carrying out free surgical procedures. It has trained 15,800 medical professionals in Sierra Leone in nursing, surgery, bio-medical, and anaesthesia; 1089 children in the country have been offered specialist surgical treatment by the charity, since its first visit in 1992.

Currently on its sixth visit to Sierra Leone, the Global Mercy will offer maxillofacial, orthopaedic, and paediatric reconstructive surgery, and ophthalmology.

In the next ten months while the ship is docked, 2350 patients are expected to receive surgery. Two hundred healthcare professionals will also be trained.

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