EDOH HAD NO ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL
SURGERY
Edoh’s parents had all but given her up for dead. The grapefruit-sized tumour on her face was relentlessly expanding into her airway when her parents journeyed 500km – to their last hope.
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND THANK YOU’s
Of all the patients Mercy Ships has served, Edoh from 1995 impacted me deeply. Perhaps you remember her too?
The line was heartbreakingly long when they arrived at the Togo port in West Africa, where the Anastasis was docked in 1995. Edoh was gasping for breath when her father desperately raised her above his head and passed her to the person ahead.
As each person in the waiting multitude saw the enormity of Edoh’s tragedy, she was lifted forward again. Eventually, the terrified child was ‘crowd-surfed’ to the front of the enormous, seething crowd and tossed, screaming, over the port gate.
Edoh was embraced by loving care as her urgent medical needs were met. She began the long journey to healing which saw the benign tumour removed, and her face and her future restored.
LOVE AND MEDICAL CARE FROM THE MERCY SHIPS VOLUNTEER CREW RESTORED EDOH
Edoh won the heart of the crew and Mercy Ships staff around the world as she heroically overcame all obstacles, against all odds.
Edoh family had lost hope she would live a fulfilling life as an adult, but look at her now! Seven years later this remarkable girl returned to the Mercy Ship for a follow-up operation, and she remembers her first visit with clarity. Unable to understand the language of those around her, she says (through an interpreter) ‘Everything came flooding back; the care and kindness of the medics spoke louder than any conversation ever could.’ Her life was saved and transformed by mercy.
LOVE that smile. LOVE that girl,’ says Nanette, echoing the hearts of many across the globe whose lives have been forever changed by the courage of Edoh.
Edoh was a young woman of almost 17 the last time a Mercy Ship was in Togo in 2010. She told us she wanted to study and become a nurse. Years later a volunteer anaesthetist meets the child patient whose life was saved with free tumour removal surgery from Mercy Ships
Dr Keith Thomson recalls, “I did Edoh’s anaesthetic in 1995. We had to replace her blood twice by volume during surgery! I saw her in Togo in 2012, and again in 2015 in Benin.”
