The long anticipated Screening Day! Hundreds start lining up outside the city's old stadium at midnight to get a spot in line to be seen by one of our Mercy Ship physicians for the chance for a free surgery and a new hope :)
Screening day was much shorter than we antipated ... meaning we believe we may have finally made a sizable dent in helping with some of their surgical medical needs. Despite, all appointments were filled from this coming July-November (end of Liberia outreach), except a few orthopedic OR spots which will easily be filled by people randomly showing up at our dock door throughout the next few weeks.
One of the most interesting and most enjoyable days of my life... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)
*After waiting in a line outside the stadium, each potential patient was escorted into the stadium to wait again...and assessed by a physician
Health History and Vitals taken before seeing the MDs
Meet my heros :) Dr. Teritus, Gary, Tony, and Andreas
If good canidate for surgery, consent obtained by fingerprints as the majority cannot read or write...
Blood work taken....
... and the magic ticket given!
Sadly, not all are operitable for a various reasons... A prayer team is standing by to pray with them before they leave if desired and to walk out with them.
Hard, but amazing day. The staff anxiously looks forward to see our future patients again onboard our new ship!
* My favorite moment of the day was when I was in charge of entertianing some of the kids waiting to be seen... asked them to come paint with me and some were shy as their burn contractureds arms made it difficult for them to move the paint brush back and forth, many kept from school because of it... with a little encouragement got them to do a bit of painting .. but the best part was thinking of all our similiar kids we've taken care of on the ward the past 2 outreaches, just smiled to myself knowing that they were gonna be fine in just a short amount of time.
