We've been writing about the things that are happening personally in our lives. For this update, we thought we would share some of the things that Mercy Ships does during a field service. First, we will write a quick overview of services, then will give you some statistics about what has happened in Guinea to date.
Obviously we have the Africa Mercy, our floating hospital platform. This ship has six operating rooms, ward space for 78 patients, and the other associated hospital services. In the hospital we have a focus on mentoring and training local health care professionals.
In addition to the ship, we have a space called "The Hope Center" which provides safe, secure housing for patients and a caregiver prior to surgery when other health issues or nutritional issues need to be addressed or after surgery when a patient will require followup but doesn't need a hospital bed. This facility provides 60 beds (plus caregivers).
We run both eye and dental clinics. These are facilities that provide basic care. Patients are selected through screening processes. We are done screening for eye care but still are doing some targeted populations, for example, on Monday we will be travelling about 30 minutes from the ship to a secure compound where handicapped individuals have a place to live. We will be screening to provide reading glasses. Dental continues on full-scale operations, seeing almost 100 patients per day.
Earlier in the time in Guinea, we had individuals up-country working with several people teaching agricultural techniques.
Here is what has been done between August 22 and April 6th:
Eye surgeries 1,529
Maxillofacial surgeries 416
Cleft Palate/Lip repair - 137
Reconstructive Plastic Surgeries - 82
General Surgeries - 218
Orthopedic Surgeries - 116
Corrective Gynecological Surgeries - 63
Dental Patients Servied - 9,897
Dental Procedures (fillings, extractions, infections, etc) - 37,466
African Surgeons mentored - 11
African Nurses mentored - 10
It's been an amazing 7 1/2 months for the staff of the Africa Mercy!!!!
Blessings,
Matt and Denise
Sounds amazing....your missing a cold wet spring here....everyone is so sick of winter...we want to sit on the porch! I haven't met the people in your house yet...Dennis has. When it gets warmer.....keep posting...want to keep up with what is happening with the neighbors!
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