The hospital ship ministry Mercy Ships recently began its first surgeries aboard the new and much-anticipated Africa Mercy – the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship.
Dr Glenn Strauss, the vice president of International Health Care and Programs, spoke to our correspondent on July 12 just days after returning from performing surgeries aboard the Africa Mercy docked in Monrovia, Liberia.
The following are excerpts taken from the interview:
I usually hear Mercy Ships performing cataract and cleft palate surgeries, but this was the first time I heard of orthopedic surgeries (surgery onmusculoskeletal ailments such as arthritis) being done on a Mercy ship. Is this the first time the ministry has done orthopedic surgeries?Strauss: No, this is not the first time, but it has been several years since one of our ships have been able to sponsor and support orthopedic surgeries. So we are thrilled that the Africa Mercy will make it possible for us to support more variety of surgeries than we have been able to do before and orthopedic is one of those.
You said you weren’t able to have orthopedic surgeries for several years. What made it difficult for other ships to host these procedures?
Strauss: Space restrictions. Orthopedic is a sophisticated, equipment-heavy type of specialty. It requires certain types of X-ray equipments and large tools required to do that type of work. So it was very difficult to accommodate that when we were dealing with makeshift operating room space.
But the Africa Mercy, on the other hand, is all-purpose built. The operating rooms are all very generously spaced in their proportions. They were designed to give us the space to be able to carry out some of these kinds of work.
What specific kinds of orthopedic surgeries will Mercy Ships be offering?
Strauss: Our emphasis is going to be patients who have been suffering from long-standing, debilitating conditions. So we expect it will be primarily for those who have old injuries – bones that have been broken or motor vehicle injuries that were never tended to (in other words, the bones were never set properly so they are not able to walk on the leg that was broken or it may be distorted or misshapen) – or hands that are not functional because the arms that have been broken were never set correctly; those types of procedures.
