A toddler who couldn’t bend her arms due to burn scars can now finally give her parents a hug after life-changing surgery.
Gamai accidentally pulled a pot of boiling water over herself when she was only one-years-old and, unable to access proper burn treatments, she grew up with contracted hands and arms as her scarred skin tightened.
She was scorned by others because of how she looked and was unable to write, dance, or fully hug her family due to her severely limited movement.
But Gamai’s mum, Confort, heard that the international charity Mercy Ships was sending a hospital ship to their country of Guinea.
Volunteer doctors and surgeons on board routinely help people with injuries like Gamai’s, so Confort set off with the four-year-old, who was selected for surgery—and after weeks of rehabilitation on the ship they returned home.
Now healed and healthy, Gamai can play, write, and dance and, for the first time in her life, she can reach out her arms to hug her parents.
“We carried her to our local hospital, but they only gave us ointment for her hands,” said Confort. “They said it could not be cured.”
Currently, an estimated 93 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to safe surgery, and tens of thousands of children die of burns in sub-Saharan Africa each year.
Mercy Ships provides hundreds of life-changing reconstructive plastic surgeries every year to treat burn patients, like Gamai, who live years with conditions that are easily treatable.
Gamai’s family had real hope after hearing of Africa Mercy’s arrival in Guinea, the charity ship that contains five operating rooms, 80 ward beds, and a intensive care unit.
When she was discharged after her rehabilitation weeks later, Gamai leapt for joy as she greeted her family and neighbors, who were outside waiting for her.
She was able to hug her parents with her newly outstretched arms after years of being unable to do so.
“Today, she is so active because she can move like she couldn’t before,” said her father, Lamine.
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“It was as if she was in prison, but today I can say she is free.”
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