Noma

I have seen pictures of noma before. I remember seeing pictures the first time I served on board and during my orientation this time, the same pictures. I didn't think I would really see patients with noma though. I don't know why I thought this. We are here to help and serve the poor and that is who noma affects.

Noma is a gangrenous infection of the face that spreads very quickly and leaves you severely disfigured. It starts, usually, as a sore in the mouth or as a small infection and it eats away at your face. It eats through skin, muscle, all the way to the bone. It thrives in poverty ridden places. Places of very poor sanitation and poor nutrition. The last time it was seen in the West was in German concentration camps.

A few days ago an 8 year old girl flew in from Cameroon with her uncle and a PA from a hospital there to meet up with the ship. She's a bubbly, outgoing little girl not seeming to be affected by all the yovos or being on this large floating vessel. She has been in and out of hospitals for the last year trying to get help so she already seems pretty comfortable in her surroundings. On the right side of her face is her bandage. It completely covers her cheek, up to her eye and right up to her lips. Yesterday the doctors took off her bandage and I couldn't believe what I saw. I was looking at this precious little girl with noma. It was like the pictures I had seen. No skin. No chubby cheeks. I saw right into her mouth. She still has her gums and some of her teeth, but when the doctors were talking, it hit me how extensive it was. She was sticking her tongue out of this hole and poking it with her finger. She has her mouth and now this other hole. How she is able to eat, I don't know. She has taught herself how to avoid this hole somehow so she can get the nutrients she needs.

She has had many surgeries before. Other hospitals have tried skin grafts and things but nothing has worked. It always excites me to hear Dr. Gary talking about what the surgeries will entail. Taking muscle flaps and manipulating them around to form chubby cheeks and thinking through the best way to give this little girl back normalicy in her life. Her surgery will be sometime this week so please pray for wisdom for the doctors and healing for this little girl.