Spat On By Her Neighbours

Sabena Otto is trying to make herself invisible. It’s not easy to do on the crowded, bustling surgical ward of a Mercy Ships floating hospital. Sabena’s trying to hide so that she can feed herself. It’s a messy and painful process because there’s a huge tumor protruding from her mouth.



Embarrassed, she eats facing the wall crouched between the hospital beds. In wealthy nations, teenagers fly into hysterics over even the smallest, temporary facial blemish. Growing up in West Africa, where medical care is hard to come by, Sabena has had to contend with far worse, and for a very long time.

“They called my daughter a witch,” Sabena’s mother says, attempting to describe the emotional pain her daughter’s experienced. “It’s been awful. All of our friends have deserted us. As we walk down the road, neighbours spit on us. “She is my only daughter, but people told me I should abandon her and leave her to die.”

Sabena barely arrived onboard the Mercy Ship in time. Daily she was growing more and more anaemic. Her airway was becoming dangerously restricted. “It is hard to estimate how long she would have survived,” explains maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Gary Parker. “She was in danger from increasingly serious anaemia, and also from a relentlessly decreasing airway size. Death from slow suffocation or exsanguination (extensive blood loss due to internal or external hemorrhage) was facing her.”

The night before her surgery, Sabena bursts into tears. Years of suffering are about to end. Feelings of relief tinged with excitement overwhelm her as she explains that her dream is to return to school.

For seven years, the tumour expanded in Sabena’s mouth. All through her teenage years she lived with a cloth covering her lower face. While the tumour is immensely painful and oozes constantly, Sabena explains that it was the reaction from friends and family that hurt the most. “All the time people are laughing at me, saying they hate me, and other horrible things,” she says. In her wildest dreams, Sabena never imagined that hope and healing would arrive in the form of a giant, white hospital ship.

After successful surgery and weeks of recovery, Sabena is unrecognisable. She’s not the same girl who first walked up the gangway. Both mother and daughter are overwhelmed by the result. “I never imagined that she could look so good again!” Her mother’s smile speaks volumes. “People told me that if I took her to Mercy Ships and she was operated on, that she would die.”



Together, mother and daughter head down the gangway. Their new lives are about to start. One last time, Sabena’s mother turns to look into her daughter’s face and she smiles. “The result is amazing,” she says. “Praise God and thank you Mercy Ships.”
© 2007 Mercy Ships International