By Joshua Isaac
Fidisoa, a 53-year-old father of three and rice farmer in a remote village in Madagascar can now look towards the future with renewed hope after undergoing a life-changing surgical procedure to remove a massive tumour that had plagued him for 15 years.
What began as a tiny pimple on his back at the age of 38 had grown into a large, 5kg lump that caused him immense physical discomfort and restricted his ability to work with ease.
However, thanks to the intervention of the surgical charity Mercy Ships, Fidisoa is finally free from the weight he had long carried and will now be able to live a normal life.
Mercy Ships, founded in 1978, is an international faith-based organisation operating hospital ships that deliver free surgeries and other healthcare services to those with little access to safe medical care. The organization has offices in 16 countries as well as an Africa Service Center in Dakar, Senegal.
It partners with African nations and in-country partners to train local healthcare professionals and supports constructing in-country medical infrastructure.
Each year, more than 3,000 volunteer professionals from over 60 countries serve on board the world’s two largest non-governmental hospital ships, the Africa Mercy® and the Global Mercy™.
“I heard of Mercy Ships in 2015 on the news, but at the time, I didn’t know how to get selected,” Fidisoa admitted.
When Mercy Ships returned to Madagascar in 2024, Fidisoa was able to be seen by the volunteer medical team and was welcomed on board to receive his long-awaited surgery.
Previously, Fidisoa had undergone three attempts to have the tumour surgically removed in his home country in 2015, 2018, and 2021. However, these proved futile as the growth would resurface each time, leaving Fidisoa in despair and physical agony.
“The first surgery was about USD 135 since the tumour was comparatively smaller. The second surgery was USD 290 and the third surgery was USD 1,250),” he noted, adding that, “the first and second surgeries were paid for, using all the money I had worked and saved over the years.”
To pay for his third surgery in 2021, Fidisoa took on a new contract abroad to raise the final funds he needed – all of which was spent on the treatment.
The turning point came when he heard in the news that the international charity Mercy Ships was offering free surgeries for conditions such as his on the hospital ship, the Africa Mercy®.
With a renewed sense of hope, Fidisoa boarded the ship, where a team of skilled medical professionals embarked on a four-hour surgery to remove the massive tumour that had burdened him for over a decade.
He received the surgery on his 53rd birthday in June 2024, the greatest gift of all, giving him the freedom to live a normal life.
The relief and gratitude he felt were immeasurable as he realised that he could now sleep on his back for the first time in 15 years.
Emerging from the operating room, Fidisoa’s family waited anxiously, their elation palpable as they witnessed the transformation – the tumour that had haunted him for years was finally gone.
“They were amazed at how different I looked,” Fidisoa said with a smile. “Thank you to all the loving, humble people at Mercy Ships and to everyone who made this possible.”
Dr Tertius Venter, a volunteer reconstructive plastics surgeon from South Africa, was among the team who operated on Fidisoa in a procedure called a back hibernoma excision.
He said that the benign tumour, a soft lobular fibroma which weighed 5 kilograms, was now gone for good. After past surgeries regrowth occurred because not all abnormal tissue was removed.
“In his case, we spent quite a lot of time because it [abnormal tissue] also infiltrated into his muscles, so we had to go thoroughly and find every bit and remove it as far as we could. We have removed it completely now,” explained Dr. Venter.
As Fidisoa embarks on the path of recovery and healing, he is filled with fresh ideas and aspirations for what lies ahead.
Without the physical limitations of his tumour, the work that had long been challenging now felt like a new beginning.
“I look forward to getting back to work immediately on the farm where I grow rice. I intend to fix an old motorbike I have back home and use that to supply sacks of rice to my customers. Maybe with time, I will travel to the Comoros Islands to do construction work, but for now, I’ll stay in Madagascar,” he said with optimism.
Mercy Ships is partnering with Madagascar’s Ministry of Health to identify the most pressing needs and strengthen the country’s surgical systems in the long term.
Through the Education, Training, and Advocacy strategy, the organization aims to increase the number of surgical providers, provide training across the surgical ecosystem, develop sustainable educational programs, and advocate for the importance of surgery in healthcare globally
The Africa Mercy® is currently serving in Madagascar from February to December 2024. During the ten-month field service in the Port of Toamasina, Mercy Ships anticipates providing more than 1,000 surgeries on board.
Over the course of three previous visits, Mercy Ships collaborated with the government and Ministry of Health to provide more than 6,425 life-changing surgical procedures and over 52,000 dental procedures.
