Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Salt Lake surgeon has just returned to work after taking a month off aboard a ship on the coast of Africa.
But Dr. Peter Stevens was not on a pleasure cruise. He was on a "mercy ship," performing 4 or 5 surgical operations each day in a part of the world where the need is enormous.
"It's a floating hospital with clean facilities, clean operating rooms and hospital wards," Dr. Stevens said, taking a break from his regular orthopedic practice at Primary Children's Hospital.
It was very fulfilling. But it was hard to leave because of the lack of resources and the condition of their existence.
–Dr. Peter Stevens
Dr. Stevens is one of 1,200 people a year who volunteer to provide medical care on a 16,500-ton vessel called Africa Mercy. It's said to be the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship and it may be the best-equipped medical facility on the African coast.
A fleet of four Mercy Ships has provided care in poverty-stricken regions since 1978 when the Mercy Ships program was launched as a Christian ministry by Don and Doyen Stephens. The organization -- based in Garden Valley, Texas -- is funded by private contributions.
For most of 2011, the Africa Mercy will remain docked at Freetown, Sierra Leone -- providing free care in a region where medical resources are scarce. The ship has six operating rooms and 78 beds, making it a floating island of clean, antiseptic medical care.
Sierra Leone has the world's worst infant mortality rate and an average life expectancy of 41 years, Dr. Stevens said. When the ship began offering free services at the port of Freetown, people flocked to screening and triage centers by the thousands, hoping to take advantage of the visit. One triage site was in the local soccer stadium.
"The focus is upon orthopedic deformities," Dr. Stevens said.
Other specialists on the ship perform plastic surgery. "Not cosmetic," Dr. Stevens said, "but burns and scars and the aftermath of the civil war in particular."
Many of Dr. Stevens' African patients had heartbreaking leg deformities that made walking difficult or impossible. Dr. Stevens attributes their crooked legs to a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D in the diet. The absence of such minerals and vitamins can cause a form of Ricketts in growing children, Dr. Stevens said.
"As they grow, and because of gravity and activities, their legs become progressively more crooked."
The leg deformities fall into three broad categories. "Bow-legs, knock-knees or a combination, which is called windswept," Stevens said, which "means one leg is bowed and one is knocked. So it looks like they are going sideways."
Dr. Stevens invented some of the surgical techniques and tools he used aboard the Africa Mercy. He was able to straighten many crooked legs, offering residents of Sierra Leone the opportunity for a better life.
Nevertheless, Dr. Stevens said he only scratched the surface of a huge problem. The needs in Sierra Leone remain vast and largely unmet.
"It was very fulfilling," Dr. Stevens said, "but it was hard to leave because of the lack of resources and the condition of their existence."
Email: hollenhorst@ksl.com
