MAF brought a girl who had lost the use of her jaw to a remote clinic for delicate surgery.
Yelikha was just five when she was the victim of a traffic accident in which she lost the use of her jaw and could no longer open her mouth or eat properly. Ten years on, Yelikha’s mother Aissatou Sompare had new hope thanks to specialist treatment at an isolated clinic.
"She is 15 years old; we have really visited many hospitals. Until today we have not had a better treatment for her situation," Aissatou said.
"Apart from the hospitals, we have also gone to several other traditional healers in several regions of the country, and we are still without success. We had the grace of being taken to a hospital located in Dubreka named (Sacred Heart). After diagnosis, they told me that the operation is possible in Nzérékoré, in the Espérance medical centre of N'Zao."
When the family was told a specialist doctor could perform the operation at a reasonable, they were still worried about making the t 954km journey on a bad road. So, the mother was relieved to be able to reach the clinic with a two-hour flight with MAF to N'zerekore.
"Given the state of the road and the urgent need, our trip was taken care of by the hospital which recommended us. This is my first time to make such a trip by flight, and I thank the MAF for their presence in Guinea, otherwise we would have had to go by road, and it would have exhausted us and even risked missing the date of the appointment,” she said.
"I thank God very much also for the hospital that recommended us to Hope Clinic in N'zao because we no longer have anything like money on us for the care of my daughter."
The previous doctors had told us that we had to evacuate my daughter to Morocco or Tunisia for her operation, but where will we find this sum for this operation? My daughter has really suffered, she can no longer eat normally like everyone else.”
Yelikha’s last resort was to make videos of herself showing her pain which she posted on social media to find help.
"She made so many videos with her phone showing how she eats, in order to ask for help from people of good will but nothing. Thank God, thanks to this hospital that recommended us to the N'Zaō Clinic for the operation," she said.
"My daughter has really suffered during these ten years; you won't know she has suffered unless you see her eating. So, my prayer on this day is that God will give intelligence, strength and wisdom to these doctors to succeed in this operation.”
Yelikha’s mother expressed her gratitude to the MAF, who facilitated their travel, as well as to the doctors in N'zao.
"The operation was successful and today here is my daughter who manages to open her mouth, something she had stopped doing for a good ten years. Now she is undergoing treatment, and everything is going very well,” she said.
"The day of the operation was really disturbing; I couldn't do anything that day. My daughter entered the operating room from eight thirty until ten o'clock, I saw the doctors going back and forth but at some point, I felt an inner peace and a total assurance that my daughter will make it.
"And all of a sudden, I see the specialist doctor who did the operation come out and say congratulations your daughter is doing well, and everything went well. “
Giles Anthony David, a volunteer maxillofacial surgeon at Hope Medical Centre, is thought to be the only specialist in Guinea who can perform the delicate operation on the young girl.
"She needed treatment, but as far as they knew, no treatment was available in Guinea, but it might be in Senegal. They contacted another charity, which knew Hope Medical Centre and knew we might be able to perform the operation here,” Dr David said.
"So, they contacted me, and yes, we could perform the operation here, but the problem was getting the patient here, and that's where MAF came in.
"In two and a half hours, they flew the patient from Conakry, not far from Dubréka, to Nzérékoré Airport, which is only about a twenty-minute drive from the centre."
