AFRICA — A ten-year-old girl from Sierra Leone is standing 14 centimetres taller after receiving free, life-transforming surgery from international charity Mercy Ships to straighten her severely bowed legs.

Through Mercy Ships, Fudia was diagnosed with Blount’s disease – a condition that causes severe leg deformities in young children and adolescents. The condition caused Fudia’s legs to bow and feet to turn inward at 90-degree angles and made walking increasingly difficult.

Following her successful surgery on board the Global Mercy she continues to grow stronger each day.

Dieke van Tuijl – Mercy Ships Volunteer Ward Nurse:

I think Fudia’s life has been tough. Fudia has a challenging family situation in which she has lost her parents. And she is raised by, other family members. So for a part, she might have been grieving for the loss of her parents and maybe grieving for the fact that she was not a normal child. She was not a happy child.

Then you’re supposed to be for her age, and sometimes even children with the same deformity as her you can still see some joy in their eyes. And I felt for Fudia life has really been a struggle up to this point.

Dr Belen Carsi – Mercy Ships Volunteer Orthopaedic Surgeon:

Fudia’s legs are so deformed that her ability to walk is really limited. Her feet really point inside 90 degrees.

That limits the amount that she can walk. She’s always limited in the activities that she does with other people because she’s ashamed. And, you know, not only she cannot walk, but she socially is not interacting like other children. So hopefully by making her legs straighter, putting her feet pointing forward, she will also open her social skills and her heart.

So it’s a big surgery. She’s going to be under general anaesthetic for many hours, and she’s going to have long leg casts for many weeks. So it’ll be a long process. It’s a big commitment from her side as well to rehabilitate and, you know, learn to walk again with your feet pointing in the right direction.

Dieke van Tuijl:

There’s something about her when she experienced some things and you can really say like, well, this girl had to fight for her life.

Declan Osborne – Mercy Ships Volunteer Physio Therapist:

Well, after almost four weeks of being in the bed and being in the chair. Food? Yeah. Today can do her first steps with the walk walker. We are all very excited and we’re all very happy. You’ve.

It’s beautiful. It’s a blessing to be able to see a life change so much from a child that has had pain in her eyes. Not even when she had physical pain. She just sometimes had pain in her eyes because she went through stuff. And then now to see her and to come up to her and you hear her little giggles and the joy in her eyes, it’s been everything.

Declan Osborne – Mercy Ships Volunteer Physio Therapist:

This girl, she’s got energy, she’s got life, she’s got determination. She’s proved herself with resilience time and time again. You could say Fuji’s name on the ship and almost everybody will know who you’re talking about. And that’s a testament to how she brought people together and how she smiled. Yeah, it’s those changes that are the most tangible. I mean, you can look at a picture and see these beautiful straight legs, but for me, what stands out is her affect in her face.

She was carrying a lot before and you can see she’s light, she’s free. And, I think she’s going places.

About Mercy Ships

Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class healthcare services, capacity building, and sustainable development to those with little access in the developing world. Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 55 developing countries, providing services valued at more than $1.7 billion and directly benefitting more than 2.8 million people. Our ships are crewed by volunteers from over 60 nations, with an average of over 1,200 volunteers each year. Professionals including surgeons, dentists, nurses, healthcare trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers, and agriculturalists donate their time and skills. With 16 national offices and an Africa Bureau, Mercy Ships seeks to transform individuals and serve nations one at a time. For more information click on www.mercyships.org.

CONTACT: Diane Rickard, Int’l Media Relations Manager, Mercy Ships, Diane.rickard@mercyships.org

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