11th to 15th July 2023
We returned to Ambatolahy near the west coast with a team of 23 including cooks and drivers. 2 volunteers from England accompanied the MMS team too.
The surgeons carried out the most operations ever on an MMS.
We rented 2 cars and a minibus for the equipment and people. Many were already waiting for our arrival. Once everything was set up, we started with a religious service led by the Pastor of the local church, then a short speech for the introduction of the whole team and necessary information for all the patients concerning the progress of the mission, the rules they must follow especially for people to operate
Most of the cases consulted by the medical consultation needed surgery such as hernia, appendicitis, but there were also 4 cases of tumors and breast cancer already in the terminal phase. Apart from that, there were cases of hypertension, gastritis, sexually transmitted diseases (very many). For children the main issues were diarrhoea, cough, otitis, fever. For ophthalmology, cataracts and myopia. The ultrasounds were for pregnancy monitoring, appendicitis, simple abdominal pains.
The age of operated patients is 70 years the oldest and 2 years the youngest. We were a little surprised to see that there are people from Mandoto (about 200km from Ambatolahy), and Morondava among the operated patients. They told us that they had been waiting for our mission for months because they had no money to go to the public hospital in Morondava or Antsirabe or Miandrivazo because operations in the big hospitals cost such a lot and are too expensive for them.
We met this woman with her baby hidden in a sheet; she didn’t want people judging or giving her 6 month old baby a bad look. She wouldn’t even show her baby to the doctor.
At birth, the baby had no problem but for the last 2 months that the baby’s head has not stopped growing – a sign of hydrocephalus. They treated the wound with a medicinal plant and it disappeared, but the head grew bigger and bigger. Doctors thought that it could be meningitis but we cannot give a conclusion without knowing anything. She asked if HoverAid can help them. We don’t know if the baby’s case is operable or not. Only a neurosurgeon would know from the results of further analyses
Patients said:
“We are very grateful for the MMS mission that Hoveraid has planned here in Ambatolahy, so many thanks to HoverAid, many people can receive adequate care”
“Without your help with this MMS mission, how could we live with such pain all our lives because we will never have money to go to the hospital, we are all peasants here”
“We hope that Hoveraid will always continue this mission and we wish a very long life to HoverAid, to the whole team and above all to all the donors
STATISTICS
Medical consultation 354; Ultrasound 126; Surgery: major 39, minor 3. Opthalmology 19; Dental Extraction 40
