Meet Sambany.
I do not know every detail of Sambany's story, but what I do know is quite inspiring. Sambany's tumor has been growing for twenty years. Despite living in a remote village, he heard about the first-world medical ship offering free operations. He did not let the distance deter him. Having nothing but hope and a very little bit of money, Sambany and his son set out for Toamasina using the only mode of transportation available to them - their feet. After three or four days of walking, they ran out of money and stopped in a village to earn some more before continuing on. I am not sure for how many more days the two men continued walking. They showed up exhausted and disheveled, but hopeful, to the Hope Center. Immediately, the surgeons onboard were paged, and Sambany was brought to the ship for examination. The lab results showed he had a dangerously low hemoglobin - only 3.5; the normal is about 13.8 to 17.2. He was given three or four units of blood during his first week onboard.
The tumor is so large, he was able to use it as his pillow. The results from the CT scan came back. The surgeons determined that the surgery was feasible, though risky. The risks were explained to Sambany and his son. Sambany felt the odds were better with surgery than without. He even stated that he would be dead without it.
Sambany had his surgery on February 3. The surgery took approximately 12 hours; the 16 pound tumor was finally out at 9:17 pm. Our photographers captured his joy as he got his first glimpse of his face without a tumor in twenty years. Sambany is recovering well. Praise God!
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