He grew up in a small village where cooking was done over an open wood fire. One day, the fire was moved into the kitchen for more convenient preparation of the family meal. Five-year-old Dela had wrapped himself in a length of cloth and was busily engaged in imaginative play. Tragically, he got too close to the fire, and a spark landed on the cloth. Very quickly the cloth and Dela were in flames, leaving burns all over his body. His left elbow was immobilized by contractures, the tightening of the skin after a second-degree or third-degree burn.
Dela was not taken to the hospital. In his village, traditional methods were the first course of action used to treat burns. Rabbit fur was mixed with herbs and spread over the skin. But this procedure brought no healing. The following year, he was admitted to a large hospital, where he lay waiting in a hospital bed for twelve months – as procedure after procedure was postponed. Finally, he was sent home after receiving no burn care at all.
Five years later, he met a man visiting in his village who took him to another hospital. Medical personnel tried to move the rigid arm to no avail. Dela decided he would have to learn to live with his left arm useless and frozen like the letter “L.”
He completed his education and became a primary schoolteacher in a village in northern Togo. Then a glimmer of hope appeared. An announcement about Mercy Ships and the free surgeries it offered was sent to the school for distribution to local families. Dela decided this was an opportunity he should not pass up. He came to a screening and received an appointment for plastic surgery onboard the Africa Mercy. He was very hopeful that maybe this time something could be done about his burned and worthless arm.
The volunteer doctors performed surgery to release Dela's arm from 24 years of stiff inactivity. After several weeks in recovery and post-operative therapy, he was ready to return to teaching in that small northern village – this time with two good arms.
“Thank you, Mercy Ships, for what you have done,” said a grateful Dela as he left the ship … waving goodbye with his left arm.
Written by Elaine B. Winn
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by Liz Cantu
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