Wellingtonian nurse Alison Brieseman is grateful to the Rotary Clubs of Plimmerton, Lower Hutt, Silverstream and Heretaunga whose joint sponsorship has been a key component of her volunteer work with Mercy Ships.
For seven years ports of call in Benin, Sierra Leone, and Liberia have been a way of life for Ms Brieseman. As Director of Nursing on the Africa Mercy she was responsible for the function of the six operating theatres, three wards and the intensive care unit onboard. While surgeries are being performed onboard, optical and dental clinics, agricultural and sanitation projects are delivered ashore. The ship has all the medical facilities required to be self-sufficient in its world-class services, provided at no cost. “Treatment is of the highest standard even if the working conditions are a little different.”
Ms Brieseman she is honoured to treat those without access to health care who are struggling to survive. “Using my skills to bring such massive change to the poorest and most desperate; to help those who have no hope is an amazing privilege. I couldn’t do it without the partnership of people such as Rotarians.”
One patient Ms Brieseman particularly remembers is Alfred who had suffered from a rare facial tumour for four years. “He was the smallest person with the largest tumour I’d seen, yet he had the sweetest nature”.
The two-kilo benign tumour enveloping Alfred’s lower jaw and teeth and causing him to slowly starve was removed by the surgical team onboard. A titanium plate was inserted along and a bone grafted to fashion a new jaw.
14 year-old Alfred said “Before the surgery, people used to run away from me. I didn’t go to school for four years. When I went back to school, all my friends were like ‘Wow!’ My family would say, ‘Yes, it’s a miracle.’ ”
Ms Brieseman had the rare privilege of seeing this young man again five years after his life-saving surgery. Alfred’s life was turned around, and his future full of hope.
She sums up her work simply saying, “It is the most useful thing I’ve ever done.”
To date, Mercy Ships have performed more than 2,884 surgical procedures in Sierra Leone this year.
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