Full Speed Ahead

During the last seven weeks of the 2008 Field Service, the Mercy Ships Hospital Services will focus on eye surgeries, maxillo-facial procedures, and some general surgeries such as removing goitres. The hospital is running five operating rooms, and the ward is now fully staffed to work at such capacity.

“This year we’ve been settling onboard the Africa Mercy,” says Ans Rozema, Patient Services Coordinator. “We’re still searching for how to use this place the best way.”

Mercy Ships is finding that they’ve exhausted some of the major conditions, like the huge disfiguring tumours that previous field services found in abundance, so the number of smaller procedures has increased.

“Instead of doing the bigger operations, we are doing lots of small operations,” says Ans Rozema. “Instead of one patient, you need four patients to fill the day. We have a lot of patient numbers, compared to other outreaches.”

Three eye surgeons are working with the goal of performing 100 operations per week for the next five weeks. Dr. Glenn Strauss from the United States, Dr. Joseph Park from Australia, and Lord Ian McColl from the UK are performing 35 operations each day on average. The procedures are mostly cataract removals, with a few crossed-eye corrections and eye removals.

Dr. A. J. Collins, an endocrine surgeon from Australia, is removing goitres. Dr. Chris Blackburn is working as a maxillo-facial surgeon, removing facial tumours, and Dr. Gary Parker will continue cleft-lip and cleft-palate operations, as well as other maxillo-facial procedures.

Additionally, Dr. José Uroz Tristan, a paediatric surgeon who works full-time at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, has returned to the Africa Mercy for four weeks. He brings his most difficult cases to the ship for an easier work environment with better anaesthesia.