Mission of Mercy
Kailey Tyson began saving lives before she even received her nursing degree.
She volunteered for five weeks starting in June as a general steward in Sierra Leone with Mercy Ships. Her service was on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that serves the sick in impoverished countries along the coast of Africa. She returned with a new mindset, which she adopted from the mentality of the people she served.
“For them, death is expected, and life is just an incredible gift,” said the Harmony native.
Tyson, 20, a senior at Cedarville University in Ohio, has had a passion for missions since she was 12 and has been on more volunteer trips than she can count.
Of those, her journey to Sierra Leone had the most powerful impact.
Tyson recalls one particular incident that defined her journey. She received a call late one night that her blood was needed immediately for an emergency transfusion. A 10-year-old boy was bleeding to death.
Law prohibits blood donations from foreign countries in Sierra Leone, so all blood necessitated in surgery or from injuries must be taken directly from the crew.
The boy, Osman Timbo, had already received a unit of blood from another donor, but continued to bleed out. When Tyson arrived, they immediately hooked her up directly to the boy for the transfusion. He was conscious and screaming the entire time.
“I'm hooked up and he's hooked up and I'm holding his hand,” she said.
When the boy opened his eyes after the surgery, recognition passed between them. She saw his name tag and realized he was a boy she had befriended on the ship. She had been taking care of him and playing with him, and now she was saving his life. In the end, the boy lost his leg, but survived.
“I got to save a friend,” she said.
Tyson is now a staunch blood donation advocate.
“When you see the person you're actually affecting, it's life changing,” she said.
“There's literally a piece of me living in Sierra Leone.”
Tyson said she relearned medical ethics in Africa. That learning experience was challenging.Mercy Ships has an 18-month contract with Sierra Leone, which permits the global charity to dock off the coast. After the term is up, Mercy Ships must leave. This led to some difficult decisions on deck.“In America, everyone lives,” she said.But in Africa, the issue of life and death is not so simple. It was not a question of who could be saved and who couldn't, but who could be stabilized after the ship was required to leave.One common health problem in Sierra Leone is called water on the brain in America. In the West, it is treated easily by placing a tube in the skull to drain the fluid, and children can then live long, healthy lives. This becomes a more complex issue in Africa, where maintenance on such tubes lapses once volunteers are gone.“Who are we going to say ‘yes' to and who are we going to say ‘no' to?” Tyson said. “Are we going to say ‘no' to this 2-year-old little kid who will die six months later?“We had to deal with things and answer questions that we never had to in America,” she said. “God gave me the grace for the moment in these things, and, thankfully, I was not the one having to make the decisions.”Tyson summarized the mission of Mercy Ships as “doing the most good for as long as you can.”She said that many people on the ship sacrificed lucrative careers to volunteer. Three people that she knew personally lost their jobs while they were on the volunteer trip.“They're the best people I've ever met in my life,” she said. “You don't see that kind of sacrificial love every day.”Tyson said she believes Mercy Ships does the most good because of the way it uses its money and because of the professionalism of the staff.Their work extends beyond the time they spend in Africa because local medical staff are educated by Mercy Ships. She said that many local African surgeons and nurses received extensive medical training during the trip.“They don't just come, do work, and leave,” she said. “We're able to make generations of difference in the medical system there.”<B>Going ashore</B>The culture on the Africa Mercy was unique, created from a mesh of cultures from 49 different countries. But when Tyson stepped off the boat and onto land with her local friend, Sama, she experienced the culture of Sierra Leone.Sama took Tyson into town, to Bible studies and to church. She said she'd never experienced such a loving community as she did in Sierra Leone.The country is still recovering from a civil war that ended 10 years ago, and now, she says, the people just want peace.Once, Tyson accidentally dropped her purse in the capital city. Instead of running to steal it, people ran to give it back to her.“That's not what I expected at all,” she said. “The culture was just so, so friendly.”She said the people were also very trusting, and those she just met would refer to her as “auntie” and trust her with their children.“It's all community living,” she said.One of the lessons Tyson never quite learned would seem to be a simple one, but not in Sierra Leone.“You literally have to learn how to walk on the streets or else you're going to get killed,” she said.Strangers frequently grabbed her off the road to prevent her from being run down. The number of pedestrians hit was so high that a woman was run over by a car in which Tyson was riding.Tyson spent her time off taking people to the post-operation clinic and caring for those at the refugee camp or the orphanage. She had daily shifts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but said that she spent most of her time working.“It's not work,” she said. “It's great fun.”HomecomingAfter many inspiring experiences in Africa, Tyson said that it was great to be back.“Even though the experience was so riveting and so amazing, I know that I am called here,” she said. “I see so much need in America.”Tyson became engaged soon after she returned home. She is to wed next June, one month after graduation from Cedarville. She said that her fiancé is also called to mission work.Tyson volunteers in the states as well, working with battered inner-city children. She plans to work in a pediatric intensive care unit after graduation, and currently works as a nurse's aide.
