Screening Day

Part of getting ready to become a hospital ship again, is to find patients we can help with surgeries. This is a time consuming & often heartbreaking job, with thousands of people turning up with the hope that they might be one of the lucky few that get chosen.

The line outside the stadium

The screening process this year took place at the local football (soccer) stadium here in Lomé. The night before the screening, lines started to form outside the stadium. We had the military on hand for security & some brave souls out there all night to tell the people what conditions we can help with. When the first of us arrived Wednesday morning at 0515, there are just shy of 1000 people outside the gates.

Pre Screening Patients

My role during the screening process was that of a pre-screener. It was my job, armed with a clipboard, tickets & a translator, to do a quick interview with each patient that came into the stadium & determine if they had something we could fix. They entered through the gate & got into 4 lines, where a pre-screener would look at them & say “yes” or “no”. If they were a “yes”, they were given a ticket & able to move on. If they were a “no”, they were escorted to the prayer station, where we would pray over them & then they would leave. This by far was the hardest. During our pre-screening briefings, we were told that people in Africa are used to hearing “no”. They hear it quite often, but they will still come with the chance that this time they might hear “yes”.

We had certain criteria that had to be met, depending on what they were presenting with. We only do certain types of surgeries & it was our job, as pre-screeners, to “weed” out those that we might be able to help with those that we can’t help. We not only looked at what they had, but how old they were, how big the issue was- meaning was it something that was impeding their movement or left them horribly disfigured.

I had a mother bring her tiny baby up to me, I didn’t even ask her what we could help her with, I just took one look at that baby & realized that this baby was dying right before my eyes. This 6 month old looked like a skeleton, he was so emaciated & frail. I turned to my supervisor & we quickly took the baby to the nutritional tent. Not sure if he’ll make it.

My beautiful Yellow Angel

I had a little 2 year girl in a beautiful yellow dress come with her mother. She was perfect, beautiful & with the biggest smile. She wasn’t afraid of the strange Yovo (white person) standing in front of her. Under her dress, I could see that her legs weren’t right, they were bowed, giving her a weird waddle when she walked. Normally, this would be something we could fix, but since we are only in Togo for a short 5 months, we are not doing any ortho, because we won’t be here long enough for physical therapy. My heart broke when I had to send her & her older sister (with the same issue) away. It’s not fair.

As the morning wore on, I saw so many people that if we were somewhere else, wouldn’t have to stand in long, long lines waiting to be seen in the chance they might get the surgery they so desperately needed. If they had been born in the States or in Europe, they would have gotten the care they needed. Thank God for my translator, Frank. He made things so much easier for me. Since I don’t speak French or Ewe (one of the local dialects), he learned what I would say & then say it without me having to say it first. I felt bad that he was the voice that said “no”, but I got to the point where I didn’t want to anymore.

Pre-screening went from 0545 to 1245. Of the 3,000 people outside the gate, 1,600 made it into the pre-screening lines. Of those, about 1/3 made it past that. Those that got a “yes” went on to be registered & have their history taken. They were divided up into specialty groups- max-fax (ie: cleft lips, facial tumors, etc), general (hernias, etc), plastics (burns, keloids), VVF (female fistulas) & goiters. They would then be seen by the different surgeons & doctors. If it was determined that yes, we can help them, they would continue on to get scheduled for surgery.

When I was done with pre-screening, I went to help with surgery scheduling. It was a nice change to be on the other end of the process. I didn’t have to say no to anyone who came to me. I would see when we had an opening & give them their appointment card, telling them what day their surgery was. These people had beat the odds & made it to the end & now knew they would be changed forever.

At the end of a long, but successful day

The day ended around 1900 (7pm), a very long, but successful day. We got a lot of people scheduled for the next 5 months; others will come back for a smaller screening with the individual surgeons when they arrive. The screening process went smoothly, no issues with crowd control or safety. Even though it was hard to turn people who we can't help away, we are still able to help so many people that it makes the day worth it.

We are EXTREMELY short on general surgeons. We had some surgeons back out at the last minute. So if you or if you know someone who would like to come & play with us here in Togo, let me know ASAP! It was hard enough to send people away at screening we don’t want to send the people we promised to help away just because we
don’t have a surgeon. Thank you


Blessings