Everything changed when Anne-Marie van Tonder, a crew clinic administration assistant on the Global Mercy™, saw Memunatu at a local children’s hospital in Freetown.
“I saw this little baby, very fragile, looking at me,” Anne-Marie, a volunteer from South Africa said. “It’s like she was speaking directly into my life. It was a real spiritual intervention.”
At just 10 months old, Memunatu was suffering from a large lump on her neck, near the throat, that had grown from a small mass that appeared when she was five months old.
Her mother, Aminata, explained she was fearful because doctors had told her Memunatu was too young for them to intervene.
“It started when she was five months, like she had a cold,” said Aminata. “I took her to the hospital; they said it’s a cold and they treated her for cold. But then, her neck area began to grow bigger.”
Aminata was referred to several doctors, eventually sitting at a nearby children’s hospital where Anne-Marie was volunteering with food delivery.
Immediately struck by this tiny baby, Anne-Marie was compelled to help. She took on the task of finding out if she could get the child referred to the Global Mercy, which was docked just a few blocks away.
At Mercy Ships, the team schedules patients well ahead of a field service, but Memunatu did not come to the registration drive. This meant that the only way she could obtain surgery was through a referral.
“It’s rare for us to attend to some of our referrals late into a field service because we already have a very full schedule. But because of her case, based on her age and her size, and looking at her CT results from the local hospital, we were worried about her condition and knew that we needed to get her in quickly,” said Krystal Franke, a volunteer preoperative manager from the United States.
That night, before surgery, Krystal visited Memunatu’s mother.
“I just felt particularly called, as a mom, to give her support while she was here,” said Krystal. “I could tell she was just afraid and scared for her daughter’s life. And I know what that’s like.”
“So, we prayed, and we just talked about how our children are really God’s children, and they’re not our own… that I would be with her as much as she needed me.”
A Support System During Memunatu’s Surgery
After preliminary examinations by physicians and nurses, Dr. Leo Cheng from the United Kingdom, who would become her surgeon, deemed her tumor not cancerous. As a result, her surgery was scheduled, but timing was critical for such a small child.
“Without the surgery, her condition would have continued to worsen, affecting her ability to swallow, eat, speak, or even cry. It could have become life threatening,” explained Dr. Cheng.
Nervous and wondering what would happen to her baby, Aminata took solace in the companionship of Anne-Marie and Krystal throughout Memunatu’s surgery.
“When I went to the ship, sister Anne-Marie introduced me to Krystal, and she
kept me company, encouraging me so that I will not be worried,” Aminata said.
Dr. Cheng commended his expert team for their precise coordination during anesthesia. Especially during the challenging intubation which required skilled airway management due to the tumor compressing Memunatu’s airway.
The surgery itself was slow and meticulous, taking three to four hours, with a total time under anesthesia of about five to six hours. Dr. Cheng carefully avoided blood loss by burning tissue before each cut, managing to preserve critical nerves and blood vessels despite the tumor being stuck down.
“With every single millimeter I was estimating, calculating, and trying to prevent any bleeding,” Dr. Cheng explained, “It went very slowly but very positively. And thank God.”
Post-Operation Peace
Memunatu was placed in ICU for post-op monitoring due to the risk of bleeding and airway swelling. After the operation, Krystal went down to the ICU and noticed Memunatu’s neck was still very swollen.
“She had tubes attached to her, and it was a clearly scary experience for her mother,” she said.
“But when I saw Aminata—just her posture—she was relieved. I saw a light come back into her eyes. Her daughter was safe, she was going to be okay, and she was going to live,” Krystal said.
“And I think that was the beautiful thing about Memunatu’s story for me… not only was Memunatu’s life saved, but I got to see her mother come back alive.”
Anne-Marie also came to the ICU.
“I just wanted to be next to her bed and pray,” she said. “This is all about the grace of God and how He came through for her. Just such a unique patient that came through during such a phenomenal period. She had all of this joy like a child should have.”
Grace for Memunatu
Volunteer hospital staff were overjoyed with her as a patient. Such a small baby profoundly affected all the volunteers on board the Global Mercy.
“When she was discharged, it was such a great joy for me to see Memunatu’s face. There was no tumor,” Anne-Marie said, smiling. “The tumor had grown so fast, almost the size of her head, hiding her beautiful face… her eyes were so full of light and joy.”
After Memunatu returned home to her village in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, Krystal reminisced about her time with the child and how Memunatu and her transformation had touched her family.
“Every night, I brought my daughter down to the wards to play with Memunatu. And it got to the point where my two-year-old daughter—she could barely say any words yet—would come to me with her little shoes and say, ‘Memunatu, Memunatu!'”
“It was the first time my daughter ever prayed with someone else. She would lay her hand on Memunatu, pray, and say, ‘Amen.’ And we got to witness her life change,” Krystal said.
Volunteer hospital staff who assisted with Memunatu’s case cannot forget her. They say she changed them.
“My hope for Memunatu is that she realizes that her life is sacred and precious. And that she gets to live a long, fulfilling life now because of the generosity of other people,” Krystal said.
Anne-Marie echoed that feeling.
“It’s not just prayer; it’s faith and works. If it was not for the work, to get information from our colleagues and forward it to the hospital team, this would not have been possible. It’s times like these that give me so much joy to be obedient to the Word of God in the calling. To do humanitarian work in Africa, especially in Sierra Leone.”
“It’s little moments like these that just gives me so much comfort just to go and do more for God’s children,” Anne-Marie said.
Memunatu is so young that she may never know that any of this happened. She may not remember the fear in her mother’s eyes, or the prayers whispered over her while she was unconscious in the ICU.
She may never know how schedules were changed to get her into surgery on a floating hospital ship, how many people prayed, or how one meal delivery altered the trajectory of her life.
But everyone who met her on the ship remembers. “She was just such a special case,” Anne-Marie said. “She’s a child I will carry with me forever.”
Back at home, Memunatu smiles differently. Weeks after her surgery, her neck had healed, and the swelling subsided. A wave of joy splashed over her face as she played with her mom, who also seemed transformed.
“When they brought her from the theater, I thought she was going to lose her life because she’s so little for such a condition,” Aminata explained.
“I was very worried for my child, but God said it’s Mercy Ships that will be able to do it for me,” she said, smiling as Memunatu played. “If not for this surgery that Mercy Ships did for my child, she would have lost her life.”
Memunatu looked up from a mat on the floor, jostling toys in her hand. A huge smile followed by a joyful bellow erupted from her smiling face.
“Thank you,” Aminata said. “I thank God Mercy Ships did this for my child.”