Serah

Sandrine’s elation turned to shock when her longed-for daughter was born. The baby’s tiny feet were twisted at severe right angles, facing inward. The heartbroken mother tearfully wrapped Serah’s disfigured feet and could not find the courage to look at them again for three days.

Sandrine’s husband had been delighted about his daughter’s birth, but he felt ill when he learned about her clubfeet. He feared her options for the future in Madagascar would be limited. He thought the disability would prevent Serah from marrying and establishing a family support network of her own.

Sandrine shares, “I was embarrassed about my baby. People were looking at her – everyone’s eyes were on her.” And Serah’s grandmother cried with despair.

The midwife was able to help the family understand there was hope for Serah because Mercy Ships was returning to Madagascar. She assured them the hospital ship’s Ponseti program had corrected many babies’ clubfeet in the past year. They could help Serah too.

Sandrine took her baby to a screening day after the Mercy Ship docked. When she received an appointment card for treatment, she held Serah close and danced for joy around her garden. Hope had finally arrived!

When Serah was seven months old, they began weekly visits to the Mercy Ships Ponseti clinic. The treatment protocol, developed by Dr. IgnacioV. Ponseti, corrects congenital clubfoot without invasive surgery. According to lead orthopedic surgeon Dr Frank Haydon (USA), this method of reversing clubfoot conditions needs minimal specialized equipment, which makes it ideal for developing nations. The key is local adoption of the program. “It can’t be guaranteed by a charity or by government. It must be sustained by the culture,” he explains.

Ponseti team crewmembers Nick (AUS) and Suzanne Veltjens (USA) collaborated with several Malagasy physiotherapists led by Dr Razafindravoanjo. He comments, “We have treated 15 children with perfect results (100% correction). Now we can treat children up to three years old. Maybe in the future there will be no older people with clubfeet in Madagascar because now we have three years in which to treat children with this condition!”

Each week’s therapy began with Serah and the other babies happily playing in water tubs while their mothers soaked off the previous week’s plaster casts and chatted.

Serah grew used to the physio team “playing” with her bent feet – gently stretching and manipulating – focusing one week on one degree and direction of foot flexion and then focusing the next week on a different direction. After each session, Serah’s feet were held in the newly attained position by fresh plaster casts on her wriggling and kicking legs.

Serah had a total of six little casts consecutively on both legs before her tenotomy procedure. This snip of her Achilles tendons allowed her feet to fully pop into the final corrected position. To maintain this ultimate degree of foot flexion, she wore miniature foot braces for three months.

Over months of therapy, the Ponseti team helped Sandrine understand how vital her commitment to Serah’s ongoing treatment is. In the final stage (the longest of the treatment), Sandrine must ensure Serah wears the supplied foot braces every single night until she is four or five years old.  Only then will Serah’s clubfeet be permanently corrected.

Sandrine says, “I was so sad, but now I am overjoyed. Now we’re going to show Serah off, saying, ‘Here we are! Come and see my baby!’ I am very happy now she has ‘real’ feet.”

When Serah takes her first steps, she will be just like all her little toddler friends. No one will be able to tell she was born with a disability.

Serah will never remember living with the burden of bilateral clubfeet, but Sandrine will never forget the life-sentence of disability her daughter was saved from.  “My mother cried before. We won’t cry now – we will dance!”

Story by Sharon Walls
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by Katie Keegan, Justine Forrest and Ruben Plomp

Photo Credit Katie Keegan 

When Serah was born with clubfeet, her mother Sandrine was devastated. She worried about her daughter’s future opportunities.

Photo Credit Katie Keegan 

A series of casts on each leg gradually turned Serah’s twisted feet into their correct position.
Serah wore braces 23/7 for three months straight after her tenotomy surgery. She will wear the braces at night until she is four years old.
Serah takes her very first steps are on strong straight feet because she received Ponseti treatment while so young.

WE ARE FAMILY . . .

ALL MY BROTHERS, SISTERS and ME!

Too Tired . . .

You know you are too tired when after your shower at the Y, you put lotion on your face and then grab your shampoo, pour some into your hands and realize that's NOT what you want to put on your body!  So you wash your hands and grab your condition, pour some into your hands and realize that's NOT what you want to put on your body!  So you wash your hands again . . . and finally grab the body lotion!  I only hope my boss got some sleep last night!  And you thought it was me! 

Will You Take My Boys?

 I was asked that question this morning by Miss Meg, one of the water ex instructors.  And she followed up that question with this statement, "Matt is so kind and nice and polite.  He is fun to work with.  I want my boys to grow up just like him." 

Thankful Thursdays and WOTA!

My new word for the day is "WOTA".  When Sam went to college as a thirty-something, I kept telling him he was "OTA" - "older than average."  Now that we're far beyond thirty-something, we've become "WOTA" - "WAY older than average"!

Today, the best part of being "WOTA" was teaching swimming lessons, and yes, I talked about this with my boss!  She said those of us who are "WOTA" are truly the best instructors.  We're experienced with children, we're not afraid to discipline, we can work with different levels at the same time and we work the children hard.  I had to agree.  After all, on this Thankful Thursday,all of the students in my first and last classes passed and two-thirds of my middle class students passed.  It's going to be a big class of "Eels" next session and I'm thankful I get them!  

It's a Boy!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of 

our birth mother Allison and her husband Logan's son . . .

LINCOLN

He was born early this afternoon weighing in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces 

and 22 inches long!  

He's the biggest baby yet 

and we are excited to have him join the family!

  

It's These Moments . . .

"It's These Moments" has been reblogged from my friend Australian nurse Deb Louden's blog, "Deb's Heart in Africa."  I was sitting there, too, when the five year awards were being given.  It's precious and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Tonight I had the privilege of listening to the Founder of Mercy Ships, Don Stephens, get up in front of the Africa Mercy crew and speak to us. He brought us back to the beginning of Mercy Ships and walked us through the history of the three ships previous to the one we are sitting on and looking ahead to the one that’s being built in China as we speak. Three crew members (Keith Brinkman, Gary and Susan Parker) were also awarded their 25 years of service awards, a little late, as each of them have actually served from 26-29 years at this point. Honestly, as I sat at the back of the room, my heart swelled. I am so proud to have given so many years of my life to an organisation that speaks life, not just into the people that we are here to serve but to each other.

I remember sitting in the International Lounge, as I was tonight, in 2009, during a community meeting when the 5 year awards were being given out. Person after person and then a few families too were called to the front of the room, spoken encouragement to and given their awards. I had signed up for 6 months and 5 years seemed like an eternity to me. I was a young nurse, just starting a career that I loved. I had come to give 6 months of my time and then return home to normal life, but something in me caught fire that night and has not stopped burning. I wondered if I was cut out for living 5 years of my life in this place. Well, so far I have surpassed that and I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. This ship is my home. This community is my family. The hospital and people of Africa are my passion and love. They are now a permanent part of me that I will always carry with me.

So often I have looked around at my community and felt sad about the missing faces of friends who have come and gone over the years. We joke that the only constant with Mercy Ships is change. How true that is, but the work is always the same. It is the faces of my patients who spur me on, who have changed me from the inside out. I don’t even know when it happened and can’t really articulate what it is, but if you had the chance to walk inside my hospital ward I could tell you the story of each of my patients. If you could see their faces, scarred and misshapen and see the way that they are transformed, not just physically but from the inside, you might understand. I wish I could show you their faces every time they look in their mirror to stare at their new reflection staring back. I would love you to see their hands raised in praise to God during morning devotions, the thanks spilling out of their hearts for this free surgery and a chance at a normal life. I would point out to you the community at work in the ward, in a room full of patients who previously didn’t know each other and had probably never seen the other patient’s conditions before, but now they walk and share life together. See the two ladies in bed 2 and 3? They are lying on their beds, heads propped up on their arms, facing each other talking, like two highschool girls on a sleepover. See the uncle of the little boy in bed 7? He is the baby whisperer and how no matter how upset the child is, if he takes them and rocks them, they are soothed. The man in bed 12, on doctors rounds, he grabbed the surgeon’s hands and began to cry. He explained that he didn’t think he would ever be able to have surgery, but now he had been given this gift and he is so thankful. The little 3 year old girl in bed 10, just wandered over to see why the little girl in bed 6 was crying. She came right up to her bed, gently touching the girl, looking up at the dad caring for the crying girl, as if to say, “What is it that’s making her cry? Can I help?” Or that time after church in the ward when one patient, about my age, had tears streaming down her cheeks as she walked back to her bed. I walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder with a concerned look on my face and opened my arms, she eagerly wrapped her arms around me and we stood there, embraced by each other, her tears soaking my scrub top.

It’s these moments that catch my breath in my throat and make me proud to be a crew member of the Africa Mercy, to be a nurse and to be here.

An update on Olivia: she is continuing to heal. We have tried a new dressing technique for her face which is working well, but still the progress is slow. Her donor site on her leg has made a dramatic improvement. Thank you so much for praying, but please do not stop yet! We still need you to continue!

And while you're praying, could you pray for my health? I've been sick four times in the last five months and would love to stay healthy!

Thanks friend!