Take away heavy burdens
Goiters and hernias
Transformational health care through onboard Surgery Programs
Surgery
Mercy Ships seeks to relieve the burden of disease and affliction such as hernias and goitres among the poor and outcast by providing specialized, corrective surgical interventions, through the Specialized Surgical Solutions program. Mercy Ships works in partnership with local governments, as well as with a variety of NGOs and physicians in the country, to provide specialized surgeries that will facilitate life-enhancing and, in many cases, life-saving transformations.
Accomplishment
Through all of the surgical programs, Mercy Ships has performed more than 108,000 life-changing operations including hernia repairs and tumour removals.
Recovery & Counselling
Patients recuperate under world-class care in the ship’s hospital ward and outpatient care in the HOPE Centre (Hospital Out-Patient Extension) where they are also provided with opportunity for moral and spiritual support. Mercy Ships aims to provide a caring, holistic environment to help patient recovery.
General Surgery
Other Health Topics
Deformities in Developing Nations: Why is the need so extreme?
For the poor in developing nations, accessing necessary medical and surgical care is extremely difficult due to their remote location, lack of medical facilities and financial constraints. Conditions that would be treated in the early stages in developed nations, grow to the point of being life threatening. The consequence for many is a lifetime of disability, rejection and sometimes even death.
In Africa, few countries have functional health care systems, which include hospitals, clinics, medical providers, etc. According to the World Health Organization, there is a critical shortage of all types of medical providers in developing nations. Due to the lack of general and specialized health care, general surgical needs, such as hernias and goitres, plague this region’s adult and paediatric populations.
“I love that Mercy Ships brings people from all over the world trained in various places and careers to use their knowledge and abilities to make miracles happen every single day.”
Volunteer Nurse, Tara McHardy from Calgary, AB
Program Photos
