The Star: March 07, 2019

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22 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday March 7 2019 Our People The Star Rose Lindley Nurse comes out of retirement to After 47 years as a nurse, Rose Lindley wanted to get involved in aid work. So she spent three weeks on a mercy ship in Guinea, West Africa. Sophie Cornish talks to her about the experience Tell me about your trip on the mercy ship? I worked as a recovery nurse, looking after people after they have had surgery. I have done that for more than 20 years in Christchurch. It took more than 40 hours to get to Conakry, the capital of Guinea in West Africa, and more than 40 hour to get home – it was hideous. The mercy ship organisation is more than 30-years-old. Basically it is a Christian ship – it is run on Christian principles. You don’t have to be a Christian to work on it. You are treated regardless of your race or religion; there are no barriers. They treat everything. They go up the coast of Africa. The countries of West Africa invite them to come because they can’t provide surgeries for people. Even if they did, the people couldn’t afford to pay for it. So mercy ships provide free medical and surgical care for these patients. People come to the ship at the beginning of its time in the country and they are assessed for suitability of surgery. Some people they say yes to, some people they can’t treat and have to go home to die. There is a palliative care team that follows them up. Not everyone can be treated, but they treat as many as they can. They spend 11 months in every port. Sometimes they take people in at the beginning of their time there, then they go away and come back and have follow-up surgery. It is funded by donations from big ON THE JOB: Rose Lindley recently returned from working on a mercy ship as a recovery nurse in West Africa. corporations in America. A lot of pharmaceutical companies provide resources. All the people on it work for free and pay for everything. So how does it all work with the staff? You pay for your airfares, vaccinations and a monthly crew to live on the ship, nothing is free for staff. I was on it for three weeks. Some people are on it for two weeks and the longest person has been on it for 30 years. He brought up his whole family on the ship – there is a really good school on it. The thing I always say about the ship is that it should never work, but it does. We have 400 people, plus 200 day crew, living on a ship together. There is something like 30 or 40 nationalities working together and it’s the happiest environment I have ever worked in. It was brilliant, it was amazing. You could be working with someone from Australia, the Netherlands or Germany, but English is the spoken language. They have interpreters throughout the place. From September last year to when I was there, they had 214 staff through the theatre block. A lot of the staff go back again. For me, I wish I did it when I was in my 20s. I would have gone back, but it’s a bit late now, it is a long journey to travel. There are a lot of jobs I could do. There is a place called the hope centre, where people stay until their next surgery. There are a lot of jobs – plumbers, electricians, every job you could think of, it’s like a wee town. 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The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday March 7 2019 23 help on mercy ship in West Africa Was everything as you expected it to be? I watched the videos online and it was what I expected, but the atmosphere was way more amazing than I ever anticipated. It was beautiful. The conditions we saw on the ship, we would never see in New Zealand, because we have free medical care here. There is a huge stigma about disability there, it is considered a curse. These people are ostracised from their communities because they are disfigured, so they come to the ship. No one on the ship is revolted by what they look like, we know they need help. So they immediately feel they are loved and not ostracised. When people feel they are loved and not being told they are different, there is hope. The extremity of the disability was way more than you would ever see in New Zealand. There were children born with cataracts, no one in New Zealand is born with cataracts. It’s to do with malnutrition and disease with the mothers. There were goiters (when the thyroid gland becomes enlarged). The biggest one they removed when I was there was 1.6kg. Nothing is treated at an early phase, there is TREATMENT: Rose Lindley treated patients like six-yearold Fatmata on board a mercy ship while it was docked in Guinea. no early treatment. These people live on less than $2 a day. Things are cheap there, but if you don’t have an income, it is still not enough. Did you ever feel unsafe there? Conakry is certainly not on the tourist destination route. It’s so poor. Most western tourists like a little bit of comfort; they like to see giraffes and elephants. The infrastructure is pretty limited there. At the moment, it’s reasonably politically stable. I think the ship was in Cameroon last and that’s really unstable at the moment. They have this awful, unstable political situation in most of these countries. I never felt unsafe, though, not once. They really love the mercy ships, they are French-speaking so they would say ‘merci.’ We weren’t allowed to go into town by ourselves, they didn’t recommend it. To be honest, it is all pretty unsafe, poverty drives people to it. Tell me about your 47 years in nursing? I trained in Christchurch. I went down the surgical route of nursing. I have always wanted to do aid work, but when you have a husband, children, a mortgage, all that sort of thing, it makes it harder. I did some private work, but I mainly worked at Christchurch Hospital, working in the Intensive Recovery Unit and in recovery for 14 years. I have been overseas and worked in the outback of Australia. You might think I have an obsession with indigenous people, and I have, I love them. I worked in this place called Halls Creek, way up in Kimberley in Western Australia. I was a nurse in a hospital there for five months. What was the difference between your time as a nurse in New Zealand and on the ship? We are very privileged in New Zealand. We have a really good health system. I have seen some of the most appalling behaviour from adults in the medical profession. But on the ship, I have never seen such humility among the staff. That’s what we are all about – we are here for the patients, not our own egos. There is so much money involved in medicine. There is medical insurance, hospitals, private hospitals – such vast quantities of money. Over there, there isn’t any money involved, everyone works for free. We are all there for the patients. The guy that has been there for 30 years, Gary Parker, he is amazing. He puts people’s faces back together in five or six hours. He does the most amazing surgeries. The sort of surgery he’s doing, he would be a multimillionaire in America, but he is sponsored to work on the ship. What were some of the most significant moments for you on the ship? Watching the children having their bandages taken off and they can see for the first time in their lives. I cry, I’m such a big baby. It just gets me, because of what you know, that these people’s lives are changed forever. •Turn to page 24 BRAND NEW SHOW HOME OPENING IN HALSWELL COMMONS, HALSWELL SATURDAY 9 MARCH 12PM - 4PM 19 Holmes Hanover Lane, Halswell (Enter from Halswell Road or Hendersons Road) Free barista coffee & delicious food Incredible design, friendly team! Home & Land packages available www.generation.co.nz/christchurch Like us on Facebook: Generation Homes Christchurch
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The Star: March 07, 2019

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