The numbers

The Africa Mercy has been in the port of Pointe Noire, Congo since August.  As this field service starts to wind down, I thought it would be interesting to see some of the numbers.

These statistics are the number of procedures done from August 2013-April 2014

 Maxillofacial : 823

Reconstructive plastic surgery:  524

Orthopedic surgery:  373

General surgery:  495

Total  surgical procedures:  4,902

:
Dental:  18,123 procedures

Ophthalmology procedures:  1,931, including 907 cataract surgeries.

The more extensive surgeries have ended.  The ship will be leaving Congo soon, so the surgeries are for patients that will need little follow-up care.  So they've been doing general surgeries like cleft palate and hernia surgery.  I talked to one surgeon who had just finished her first day operating on the ship.  She told me that she had never seen a large hernia.  Small problems become big problems when access to health care is so difficult.

Debbie