Sambany before the operation with his 7.4kg tumour. Photo / Mercy Ships
Sambany before the operation with his 7.4kg tumour. Photo / Mercy Ships
Madagascar man Sambany walked for three days to have a life-threatening 7.4kg tumour removed from his cheek aboard a Mercy Ship, assisted by Tauranga nurse Sue Clynes.
Sambany, 60, needed the help of his grandson to walk to Africa Mercy, a Mercy Ship on which Otumoetai couple Sue and John Clynes have been working for 19 months.
Sambany, with his grandson, checks out his face in a mirror after the operation.
The tumour had been growing on his cheek for almost 20 years and as he lived in a remote part of Madagascar, without access to health care, he was slowly dying.
When he found out about the hospital ship, he walked for three days to reach the port, with the help of his grandson, in the hope the team on board could help.
"When I first saw him, I was amazed at the size of his tumour - it was almost like he had three heads," Mrs Clynes told the Bay of Plenty Times.
View the Mercy Ship's online video below.
"He had to walk stooped to counterbalance the heavy weight of the tumour, which must have been so painful.
"He was also very anaemic and we were all in awe of the lengths that he had gone to to get here, knowing that if I had been that unwell, I wouldn't have even been able to get out of bed."
Sue Clynes meets with Sambany after surgery. Photo / Mercy Ships
Surgeon Dr Gary Parker warned Sambany about the huge risk of operating on a tumour this size and Sambany decided to continue with the surgery.
Mrs Clynes met Sambany for the first time on the day of his surgery and was the nurse who went to collect him before his life-changing operation.
She was the circulating nurse supporting the surgical team during the 12-hour operation and said everything went smoothly because there had been a high level of advance planning and an "unprecedented" level of support from the rest of the ship's crew. Seventeen crew members donated blood to Sambany before, during and after the operation.
When Sambany woke up after his operation and saw his face for the first time, he said over and over how happy and grateful he was to God for his "new face". "It was very rewarding to get to the end of the procedure and to see his face without the tumour,' Mrs Clynes said.
He had to walk stooped to counterbalance the heavy weight of the tumour, which must have been so painful.
"Even though by then it was 11.30pm and we had been working since 8am and we were all really tired, we were all buoyed up by the thought of his face when he woke up and saw it for the first time.
"This was certainly the biggest surgery I have been involved in during my time on the ship."
Before leaving Tauranga to work on the African Mercy, Mrs Clynes was a Tauranga Hospital theatre nurse. Her husband John was an employee of Bay Engineer Supplies and now works on the ship doing repairs and maintenance.
They pay their own airfares, accommodation and meals while working, without pay, full-time on the ship.
