Dr. Peter Stevens was on good old Utah KSL news this week. Dr. Stevens is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. He performed my reconstructive bone surgeries as well as my sister's so he's near and dear to my heart. Those surgeries literally changed my life in so many ways. Here's a fun little video about what Dr. Stevens did on the Mercy Boat off the coast of Africa. I've heard of these sorts of medical missions before and I have three words to say: Sign me up! I would LOVE,
love to do something like this with Troy someday.
Video Transcript:
Salt Lake City doctor boards 'Mercy Ship'
April 17th, 2011 @ 7:02pm
By John Hollenhorst
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Salt Lake surgeon has just returned to work after taking a month off aboard a ship on the coast of Africa.
But Dr. Peter Stevens was not on a pleasure cruise. He was on a "mercy
ship," performing 4 or 5 surgical operations each day in a part of the
world where the need is enormous. "It's a floating hospital with clean facilities, clean operating rooms
and hospital wards," Dr. Stevens said, taking a break from his regular
orthopedic practice at Primary Children's Hospital.
Dr. Stevens is one of 1,200 people a year who volunteer to provide
medical care on a 16,500-ton vessel called Africa Mercy. It's said to be
the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship and it may be the
best-equipped medical facility on the African coast.
A fleet of four Mercy Ships has provided care in poverty-stricken
regions since 1978 when the Mercy Ships program was launched as a
Christian ministry by Don and Doyen Stephens. The organization -- based
in Garden Valley, Texas -- is funded by private contributions.
For most of 2011, the Africa Mercy will remain docked at Freetown,
Sierra Leone -- providing free care in a region where medical resources
are scarce. The ship has six operating rooms and 78 beds, making it a
floating island of clean, antiseptic medical care.
Sierra Leone has the world's worst infant mortality rate and an average
life expectancy of 41 years, Dr. Stevens said. When the ship began
offering free services at the port of Freetown, people flocked to
screening and triage centers by the thousands, hoping to take advantage
of the visit. One triage site was in the local soccer stadium.
"The focus is upon orthopedic deformities," Dr. Stevens said.
Other specialists on the ship perform plastic surgery. "Not cosmetic,"
Dr. Stevens said, "but burns and scars and the aftermath of the civil
war in particular."
Many of Dr. Stevens' African patients had heartbreaking leg deformities
that made walking difficult or impossible. Dr. Stevens attributes their
crooked legs to a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D in the diet. The
absence of such minerals and vitamins can cause a form of Ricketts in
growing children, Dr. Stevens said.
"As they grow, and because of gravity and activities, their legs become progressively more crooked."
The leg deformities fall into three broad categories. "Bow-legs,
knock-knees or a combination, which is called windswept," Stevens said,
which "means one leg is bowed and one is knocked. So it looks like they
are going sideways."
Dr. Stevens invented some of the surgical techniques and tools he used
aboard the Africa Mercy. He was able to straighten many crooked legs,
offering residents of Sierra Leone the opportunity for a better life.
Nevertheless, Dr. Stevens said he only scratched the surface of a huge
problem. The needs in Sierra Leone remain vast and largely unmet. "It was very fulfilling," Dr. Stevens said, "but it was hard to leave
because of the lack of resources and the condition of their existence."
