Working on hospital Mercy Ship so rewarding, says Shropshire medic Felicity
A Shropshire medic who volunteered her skills to work on the Africa Mercy Ship has urged others to consider doing the same.
Anaesthetist Dr Felicity Avann, from Shrewsbury, was involved in several operations on the hospital ship.
She stressed that the charity needed people with all types of skills on board, and she is backing a move by the Oswestry Borderland Rotary which sponsors staff to work on Mercy Ships.
The club's Linda Butler Mercy Ships Bursary is awarded to local medical or non-medical volunteers who are prepared to devote their time to work on one of the Mercy Ships.
Linda, who passed away in 2016 was a nurse at Oswestry's Orthopaedic Hospital who twice volunteered, off Benin and then Sierra Leone.
Dr Avann spent two weeks on the ship in the Port of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal , where it will be moored until June this year.
The dock area has been turned into a busy hub for outpatient clinics, screening clinics and a patient admission area. All patients are thoroughly screened and counselled before surgery, and are admitted to the wards the night before surgery, she said.
"During my time on the ship we ran three well staffed and equipped operating theatres," she said.
"The operating theatres are well staffed and equipped. I personally anaesthetised 28 patients, mainly children, for operations such as cleft lip and palate, removing benign but large tumours from the skull, orbit, face, jaw, neck, chest and breast, plus hernias, and treating testicular conditions.
"I anaesthetised for skin grafts to limbs to treat horrendous scarring after snakebites and in the treatment of foot gigantism."
She said she was also involved in a specialist type of intubation, putting the breathing tube through the vocal cords and into the windpipe while the patient is awake.
She added: "Although the official language of Senegal is French, the patients mainly spoke Wolof, a local dialect. I went to an evening class to help learn basic phrases and numbers but used a translator every time I spoke to a patient to communicate with them."
"While I was on the ship I helped teach local Senegal anaesthetic nurses and doctors who visited . We helped instill safe practice and techniques that they can take away with them."
"I would like to thank Borderlands Oswestry Rotary Club and many others who helped me to fundraise to facilitate my mission to Senegal. It was incredibly rewarding and it changed my life and the way I view the world. I highly recommend it to anyone thinking of volunteering.
"There are plenty of opportunities for passionate people to join the ship, such as working in the hospital there are jobs in the galley, housekeeping, engineering, logistics, media relations, fundraising, administration and human resources.
If you are interested in finding out more visit mercyships.org.uk and if you wish to apply for a Linda Butler Bursary contact info@borderlandrotary.co.uk.
