Gamai from Guinea was a one-year-old when she suffered a horrific burn accident. With no access to medical care, her family were forced to watch as her skin contracted around her arms and hands, leaving her unable to perform basic tasks.
In the UK, 30 babies and toddlers go to hospital with a hot drink burn every day. In 2023, over 8500 children in the UK were burnt or scalded while up to six children a year die from a burn. Compare this to sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 30,000 children under 18 die annually from burns, making them the second most common accidental cause of death among African children under five years of age.
Non-fatal burns are a leading cause of morbidity, including prolonged hospitalisation, disfigurement, and disability, often resulting in social stigma and rejection. Poverty and overcrowding in home settings significantly increases the likelihood of burns with women and young children being especially vulnerable.
This is why international health charity, Mercy Ships is collaborating with multiple African countries to improve surgical care for African nations by 2030. Currently, an estimated 93% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to safe surgery.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, people have limited access to medical care," explains volunteer plastic surgeon, Dr Tertius Venter. “So when they get a burn they often get an infection, the wounds go deeper, they lose more skin and the only way that the body can deal with that is by pulling the skin edges together. And if it’s over a joint it will just pull that joint up into an immobile, fixed position.”
Without free, life-transforming reconstructive plastic surgery, Gamai’s hands and arms would have remained severely contracted.
Gamai’s accident happened one morning when she was just one year old. Her mother, Confort, put a pot of water on to boil some rice for breakfast. Moments later, Gamai, who had just started to walk, toddled past the pot and fell over, pulling the boiling hot water over herself.
“We carried her to the hospital but they only gave us ointment for her hands,” explains Confort. “They said it could not be cured.”
With broken hearts, Gamai’s parents watched their little girl grow up with contracted hands and arms, as her untreated, scarred skin tightened, severely limiting her movement. To make matters worse, other children and adults in their village began to scorn Gamai because of how she looked. “Before I could not even take Gamai outside without being ridiculed,” says Confort.
One day, Confort heard that a hospital ship was coming to their country to help people with injuries like her daughter’s. When the Africa Mercy arrived in Guinea, Confort bravely made the journey with four-year-old Gamai in her arms.
The floating hospital ship, the Africa Mercy contains five operating theatres, a four-bed recovery area, intensive care for up to five patients, and 80 ward beds. It houses over 400 volunteer crew members from up to 40 nations.
Gamai was selected for surgery, and after weeks of rehabilitation, was able to leave the ship and return home. Full of life, Gamai leapt for joy as she greeted her family and neighbours, who were outside waiting for her. 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.
“Today, she is so active because she can move like she couldn’t before,” explains Lamine, Gamai’s father. “It was as if she was in prison, but today I can say she is free. She tells me that she wants to become someone important someday. I dream that she becomes president!”
Through the work of the Global Mercy and Africa Mercy, health charity Mercy Ships provides hundreds of life-changing reconstructive plastic surgeries every year to treat burn patients, like Gamai, who have been robbed of years of healthy life for conditions that are easily treatable.
