Mercy Ships Removes Painful Neck Tumor From Five-Year-Old Houleye in Senegal

Houleye grew up in Senegal with a tumor on her neck that enlarged until it covered nearly half her face. It limited how she could turn her head and caused stabbing pain. Her aunt, Khadiatou, said the girl would stop playing and cry. Other children teased her. The family could not afford surgery.

A local doctor told them that the hospital ship Africa Mercy was coming to provide free operations. Houleye and Khadiatou traveled about eight hours to the port of Dakar. Only when they stood on the dock, Khadiatou later said, did they believe the ship was real. “When I saw the ship, I knew it was a work of God.”

Volunteer surgeons on board removed the mass. Mercy Ships describes the operation as life-changing maxillofacial care that took away the growth and the pain. On arrival Houleye was timid. Within weeks she was playing with other children without ridicule.

Khadiatou said she no longer had to worry every moment. “Before the tumor was removed, I was always worried about her. Now, I don’t have to be.” Houleye, then about five, returned to her community able to run and play with a smile her family said they had waited years to see.

Source: Mercy Ships patient profile “Meet Houleye” / “Healing for Houleye,” Africa Mercy field service in Senegal (published 2022).