Mercy Ship - Larry's Story
Mercy Ships is an international humanitarian organization which operates state-of-art, world-class health care services to some of the world’s poorest nations. The Africa Mercy is the world’s largest civilian hospital ship that moves around Africa to areas of great need.
Larry Hewitt lived in Prince George, BC and has been volunteering on board the Africa Mercy since 2015 with his wife, Sandy. With a background in biomedical engineering and radiology, his knowledge and expertise is being put to good use to make an impact in the lives of people in disadvantaged nations. Larry gave us a bit of background on his work with Mercy Ships.
In the Spring of 2013, my wife Sandy watched a documentary done by 60 Minutes on the work of Mercy Ships. She showed the documentary to me, which we both thought was fascinating and very interesting. Over the next couple of weeks we separately looked at jobs with Mercy Ships. We both came together and realized that we could work on the ship together helping the poorer people in the world. My wife, Sandy, is a Pharmacist and I am a Biomedical Technician. We both felt strongly that God was calling us to use our abilities to help those less fortunate than us.
It was a long process but after completing training for 6 weeks in Texas, which is necessary for long term crew, we arrived on the Africa Mercy in November of 2015. We have been working and living on the ship since then and have been to Madagascar, Benin, Cameroon, Guinea and Senegal. Sandy is the Senior Pharmacist onboard and is responsible for the medications for our patients and crew. I am a Biomedical Technician onboard and I am responsible for the maintenance and testing of the hospital equipment as well as being involved in the selection of new equipment. Sandy and I live in a small cabin on the ship along with 400 to 450 other crew.
The ship is like its own little village and needs many different skills sets to keep it running so that we can operate the hospital. We have electricians, mechanics, cooks, housekeepers, nurses, dentists, teachers, ship’s officers, doctors, surgeons and many more. All bring their unique skills to help the poor people in Africa. One of my favorite things on the ship is to see the children after having orthopaedic surgery learning to walk in the corridor outside the wards in the hospital.
For most of Fatmata’s childhood, her legs have been slowly bending into a ‘bowed’ shape. This orthopedic condition, often associated with malnutrition, typically worsens over time causing difficulty with walking or even standing for long periods of time.
The family is already planning Fatmata’s return to school and dreaming bigger than ever about what their girl is going to accomplish in the future. It’s hard to imagine a little girl more loved or supported than this sweet six-year-old.
Until we had seen firsthand the diseases of poverty and malnutrition, we were oblivious to the kind of lives that many people in West Africa are destined to live. Many of these debilitating diseases are treatable by surgery that is not readily available to the local people. While physical deformities were once difficult to witness, we now see past these maladies to the person within who is longing for a normal life that we can help to provide.
If you would like more information and stories about Mercy Ships go the Mercy Ships Canada website.
Bayer Radiology Canada is a proud sponsor of the Mercy Ships organization with a donation of a new CT injector and supplies to the Africa Mercy in 2019 and will be continuing our support as the Global Mercy is commissioned to serve Malaysian countries in need of medical care.
Mercy Ship - Larry's Story
Mercy Ships is an international humanitarian organization which operates state-of-art, world-class health care services to some of the world’s poorest nations. The Africa Mercy is the world’s largest civilian hospital ship that moves around Africa to areas of great need.
Larry Hewitt lived in Prince George, BC and has been volunteering on board the Africa Mercy since 2015 with his wife, Sandy. With a background in biomedical engineering and radiology, his knowledge and expertise is being put to good use to make an impact in the lives of people in disadvantaged nations. Larry gave us a bit of background on his work with Mercy Ships.
In the Spring of 2013, my wife Sandy watched a documentary done by 60 Minutes on the work of Mercy Ships. She showed the documentary to me, which we both thought was fascinating and very interesting. Over the next couple of weeks we separately looked at jobs with Mercy Ships. We both came together and realized that we could work on the ship together helping the poorer people in the world. My wife, Sandy, is a Pharmacist and I am a Biomedical Technician. We both felt strongly that God was calling us to use our abilities to help those less fortunate than us.
It was a long process but after completing training for 6 weeks in Texas, which is necessary for long term crew, we arrived on the Africa Mercy in November of 2015. We have been working and living on the ship since then and have been to Madagascar, Benin, Cameroon, Guinea and Senegal. Sandy is the Senior Pharmacist onboard and is responsible for the medications for our patients and crew. I am a Biomedical Technician onboard and I am responsible for the maintenance and testing of the hospital equipment as well as being involved in the selection of new equipment. Sandy and I live in a small cabin on the ship along with 400 to 450 other crew.
The ship is like its own little village and needs many different skills sets to keep it running so that we can operate the hospital. We have electricians, mechanics, cooks, housekeepers, nurses, dentists, teachers, ship’s officers, doctors, surgeons and many more. All bring their unique skills to help the poor people in Africa. One of my favorite things on the ship is to see the children after having orthopaedic surgery learning to walk in the corridor outside the wards in the hospital.
For most of Fatmata’s childhood, her legs have been slowly bending into a ‘bowed’ shape. This orthopedic condition, often associated with malnutrition, typically worsens over time causing difficulty with walking or even standing for long periods of time.
The family is already planning Fatmata’s return to school and dreaming bigger than ever about what their girl is going to accomplish in the future. It’s hard to imagine a little girl more loved or supported than this sweet six-year-old.
Until we had seen firsthand the diseases of poverty and malnutrition, we were oblivious to the kind of lives that many people in West Africa are destined to live. Many of these debilitating diseases are treatable by surgery that is not readily available to the local people. While physical deformities were once difficult to witness, we now see past these maladies to the person within who is longing for a normal life that we can help to provide.
If you would like more information and stories about Mercy Ships go the Mercy Ships Canada website.
Bayer Radiology Canada is a proud sponsor of the Mercy Ships organization with a donation of a new CT injector and supplies to the Africa Mercy in 2019 and will be continuing our support as the Global Mercy is commissioned to serve Malaysian countries in need of medical care.
