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Speaker 1: Five Double A Nights with Matthew Pantalas said just before

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Speaker 1: the break, Big Lagrhan, one of our regular callers, inspired

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Speaker 1: this next chat because he'd seen the documentary on Mercy Ships.

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Speaker 1: So I thought, well, let's find out more about what

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Speaker 1: mercy ships are and where and how they operate. And

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Speaker 1: an Adelaide man is a regular volunteer on Mercy ships

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Speaker 1: and the work they do. They're basically a floating hospital

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Speaker 1: ship as I understand it. Brian Ambrose, thank you for

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Speaker 1: your time.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Good evening, It's great to be on the show.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having you.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about Mercy ships. What is

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Speaker 1: the charter? What do you do?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So basically the idea of it started backing I

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Speaker 2: think nineteen seventy eight with Don Stevens, who had this

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Speaker 2: vision of bringing healthcare to those that were least able

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Speaker 2: to access it and had this dream of basically using

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Speaker 2: a ship, given that the majority of people live within

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Speaker 2: reach of the coast, and having this wonderful hospital ship

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Speaker 2: that's able to go to basically give service to the

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Speaker 2: world's poorest people that otherwise wouldn't have a chance of

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Speaker 2: getting what we take very much for granted in Australia.

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Speaker 2: So it's literally a big giant hospital on a ship

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Speaker 2: that rocks up to a port, generally stays there for

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Speaker 2: ten months of the year, provides all sorts of different

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Speaker 2: surgery for people for free, and trains up a whole

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Speaker 2: lot of the locals along along the way, whilsty getting

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Speaker 2: involved in a whole lot of different community building, health,

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Speaker 2: medical capacity building and even some sort of farming outreaches

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Speaker 2: that they do. It's a Christian organization that people from

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Speaker 2: all over the world come to serve on and yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's me. It's just been the best experience of my

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Speaker 2: life getting to going there four times.

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Speaker 1: Now, okay four times. What do you do? Are you

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Speaker 1: a medical specialist? Is that your.

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Speaker 2: Normally work at flenders and in private and yeah, generally

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Speaker 2: just go for a couple of weeks each year and

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Speaker 2: yeah my skills in that way.

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Speaker 1: All right? How do people I mean, if you rock

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Speaker 1: up in a in a ship on off the coast

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Speaker 1: of Africa, are you are you welcome there? Firstly, that's

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Speaker 1: the first question. I mean, it must be a safe

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Speaker 1: and pre organized thing to do. I mean, you don't

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Speaker 1: want to get raided in the middle of the night

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Speaker 1: for instance, by of course, yeah, and the other would

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Speaker 1: be in relation to that, how do people in Africa,

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Speaker 1: perhaps I don't know, one hundred killer met perhaps even

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Speaker 1: hundreds of killer meters away. I mean, you tell me,

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Speaker 1: how do they know you're there to come for medical aid?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Great questions. The logistics effort behind it is phenomenal. So,

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Speaker 2: as I mentioned, they stay in the one place for

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Speaker 2: ten months of that year, but before they rock up

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Speaker 2: to a country, so they're going to be in serially

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Speaker 2: owned shortly and I'll be heading there in January. They'll

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Speaker 2: have forward teams go to the country and they'll advertise

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Speaker 2: sort of on the local radio. And because it's been

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Speaker 2: going since nineteen seventy eight, a lot of the times

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Speaker 2: they've been to the countries, which tends to be more

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Speaker 2: commonly in West Africa. But I went to Madagascar earlier

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Speaker 2: this year as well, and they're been all over the place.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, basically they've got forward teams that go out.

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Speaker 2: They will advertise, look, we're doing screening for anybody that

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Speaker 2: needs it in this town on this date, and where

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Speaker 2: it spreads by word of mouth and whatever other mediums

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Speaker 2: they have at their disposal, and then yeah, they start

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Speaker 2: the screening and the planning process, but obviously before that

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Speaker 2: the conversations with the local government authorities and health authorities. Basically,

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Speaker 2: they'll only go where they're invited to go and where

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Speaker 2: the government's very happy to have them and it's willing

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Speaker 2: to support them in their effort, because the idea is

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Speaker 2: that not that they rock up and take any business

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Speaker 2: away from the health services of the hospital, but to

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Speaker 2: work in partnerships with them and making sure that when

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Speaker 2: we leave at the end of ten months or you know,

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Speaker 2: we've had a couple of years at SI earlier now

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Speaker 2: in Madagascar, but they leave the health workforce in a

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Speaker 2: much stronger position than when they first arrived.

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Speaker 1: That's a bit of training, etc.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's always surgeons on board that are

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Speaker 2: being trained by the other international surgeons that come on.

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Speaker 2: Every time I've served, I've been working alongside one of

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Speaker 2: the local anesthetic providers to help them because they often

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Speaker 2: have incredible experience, but not the opportunity to do the

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Speaker 2: sorts of surgeries that we were able to offer people

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Speaker 2: just through lack of health infrastructure and training opportunities in

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Speaker 2: those countries.

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Speaker 1: I see over the years from the early ships the

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Speaker 1: photos they've they've gradually become bigger and bigger. I mean

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Speaker 1: we're not talking q E two type ships, but still nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: you know high ships now big ships.

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Speaker 2: Their massive and that's been a deliberate thing just because

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Speaker 2: as they've gone they've realized, actually, the economy of scale

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Speaker 2: is where you're going to get your best bang for

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Speaker 2: the back, given that everything that goes because you literally

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Speaker 2: got a floating city on board. You've got engineers, you've

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Speaker 2: got all the maritime departments are the sailors, your captain,

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Speaker 2: You've got carpenters, you've got electricians, builders, teachers, chaplains, let

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Speaker 2: alone everything that goes into running a normal hospital as well.

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Speaker 2: So it's a phenomenal effort. And if you're doing all

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Speaker 2: of that just to be running one theater at a time,

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Speaker 2: then you're not getting your bang for buck. And so

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Speaker 2: it's been a deliberate move to get bigger as funding

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Speaker 2: has enabled to in order to maximize the ability to

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Speaker 2: impact as many lives as possible.

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Speaker 1: All right, So as I understand that there's two ships

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Speaker 1: now in the fleet, the Global Mercy and the Africa Mercy,

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Speaker 1: Yeah that's right, how many can you look after on board.

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Speaker 2: So the Africa Mercy is the older of the two.

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Speaker 2: Typically we'll have four featers running on any given day

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Speaker 2: over there. It depends on staffing obviously, and what surgeries

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Speaker 2: we've got going at the time, because we have to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we don't overwhelm our ward as well,

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Speaker 2: because obviously after surgery, most a lot of the surgeries

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Speaker 2: that the patients need to stick around for a while.

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Speaker 2: And so yeah, weighing up those things. So generally about

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Speaker 2: four feeters going on the Africa Mercy and then the

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Speaker 2: Global Mercy is able to go up to I think

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Speaker 2: six theaters. And yeah, again that that just depends on

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Speaker 2: what's happening at the time. During the COVID years, unfortunately

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Speaker 2: that had to be reduced to lack of people been

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Speaker 2: able to get anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, and I imagine it's people with you know,

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Speaker 1: long term health impacts that come to you, or could

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Speaker 1: somebody have had an accident in the city, you know,

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Speaker 1: the day, the day you arrive or whatever. Can they

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Speaker 1: be broad on.

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Speaker 2: Board, No, they can't. Unfortunately, it'd be lovely to be

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Speaker 2: able to provide an emergency, but just in terms of

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Speaker 2: having enough equipment, having the right surgeons at the right

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Speaker 2: time to be able to do that. What would probably

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Speaker 2: happen is would lose the ability to do all the

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Speaker 2: elective surgery. And as I mentioned, these these are surgeries

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Speaker 2: that have booked sort of sometimes you know, twelve months

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Speaker 2: in advance, and so to have to say that somebody, sorry,

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Speaker 2: we've had to cancel your surgery because somebody's coming within

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Speaker 2: the endocytos or trauma or something like that, we're just

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Speaker 2: not staffed for that has to be unfortunately. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's it's basically they'll do blocks throughout the years. So

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Speaker 2: at any given time they might have your pediatric surgeons,

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Speaker 2: you're ino stroat surgeons, and your ophthalmology surgeons going, and

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Speaker 2: then after six week blocks they'll rotate and have general surgery, orthopedics,

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Speaker 2: maximo facial plastics and reconstructive or your glytecological surgery. They

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Speaker 2: do a lot of fissular surgery, the vaginal fistular surgery

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Speaker 2: on board as well. So yeah, it's ever moving, ever changing.

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Speaker 1: Is it pediatrics as well?

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Speaker 2: Lots of pediatrics? Yeah, yeah, that was one of the

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Speaker 2: big reasons I sort of sub specialized in pediatric anesthesia,

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Speaker 2: just because I knew that I'd be wanting to spend

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Speaker 2: a lot of my life on board the ship. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of pediatric surgery, and it's it's stuff

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Speaker 2: that you just don't really see a lot. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you get you get a lot of earners and that

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Speaker 2: sort of thing, but you get a lot of burns,

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Speaker 2: a lot of kids. Had a kid that had been

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Speaker 2: bitten by a cobra and had sort of fused his

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Speaker 2: whole arm up. We had to have some multiple major

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Speaker 2: surgeries to reconstruct that. A lot of cleft lips, cleft palets,

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Speaker 2: which is great and yeah, depending on which country as well.

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Speaker 2: So some of the countries they've been to previously, they've

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Speaker 2: actually been able to train up enough surgeons to deal

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Speaker 2: with those sorts of conditions when we when I served

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Speaker 2: in Guinea some years back, there were hardly any cliff

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Speaker 2: cleft lips and palettes because the surgeons that have been

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Speaker 2: trained at the last time around had been doing all

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Speaker 2: all of those, which was just fantastic to be able

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Speaker 2: to witness firsthand that impact of the medical capacity.

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Speaker 1: Building of the Yeah, that's incredible. So Brian, from what

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Speaker 1: you say, you trained with this in mind, you knew

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Speaker 1: about the mercy ships, and you decided early on that

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Speaker 1: this is something you wanted to do as part of

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Speaker 1: your career.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Yeah, It's sort of been on my radar, I

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Speaker 2: mean since I mean I've always wanted to do this

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Speaker 2: sort of work since I was thirteen, when I went

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Speaker 2: and visited my uncle and auntie who are missionaries in Indonesia,

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Speaker 2: and they were sort of living in some of the

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Speaker 2: poorer areas and just seeing poverty firsthand, I think had

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Speaker 2: a massive impact on me. And that was when I

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Speaker 2: kind of just felt, Okay, I'd love to be able

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Speaker 2: to be both a missionary and a doctor and someone

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Speaker 2: who can love people practically with my skills, and so

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Speaker 2: that was sort of a big motivation for going into

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Speaker 2: med school. And then yeah, just looking as you go

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Speaker 2: through your career, it's obviously six years of med school.

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Speaker 2: I did rural general practice first, so that was another

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Speaker 2: four years after my internship, and then I decided to

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Speaker 2: go into anesthetics another five years, and throughout that time

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Speaker 2: I came across mercyships and just thought, Wow, what an

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Speaker 2: incredible opportunity where you can have a skill set like mine,

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Speaker 2: which you know, you're realistically you're talking probably fifteen years

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Speaker 2: to get to where I've got to. That can literally

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Speaker 2: rock up on Saturday evening on the ship and by

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Speaker 2: Monday be operating using those skills.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, anathetics is just like surgery, is one of

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Speaker 2: those things where you can do it sort of anywhere

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Speaker 2: in the world the right drugs and right equipment, very

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Speaker 2: transferable skills and yeah, so.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever been anywhere? Have you ever been anywhere

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Speaker 1: where you felt unsafe?

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Speaker 2: Not on the Mercy Ship. They take their security really

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Speaker 2: very seriously. I mean they've been to places like Liberia

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Speaker 2: during civil War, but stocked in areas that were un

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Speaker 2: safe spots. They have a lot of security protocols and

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Speaker 2: they're always keeping tabs on what's happening. When I was

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Speaker 2: in shair Leone back in twenty twenty three, they two

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Speaker 2: weeks after I left, they actually did there was a

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Speaker 2: bit of unsafe well, there was a jail break and

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Speaker 2: an attempted coup in Freetown where their ship was, and

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Speaker 2: so during that time they had a curfew. But most

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Speaker 2: of the ports where they are very easily able to

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Speaker 2: sort of control who comes in, who knows out, And yeah,

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Speaker 2: we have gurkis or retired Gurkers as our security. I'm

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Speaker 2: on board, and they're obviously the Special Forces.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they take no prisoners.

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Speaker 2: No no, So you see their smiling faces and know

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Speaker 2: them and you feel very safe. Yeah. I've never felt unsafe.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and your brothers, I understand your brothers on

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Speaker 1: his first mission to see a medical person and too, he's.

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Speaker 2: Actually yeah, he's a theater nurse and anesthetic nurse, managed

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Speaker 2: to opinion. So super excited to be able to serve

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Speaker 2: alongside with him. Beautiful, never worked together before, So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it'll be it'll be awesome.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be good. So that's in Sierra Leone

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Speaker 1: and that is just amazing. Brian, thank you for your

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Speaker 1: time tonight, and what tremendous work You talked about carpenters

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Speaker 1: and others on board. So I suppose they they head

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Speaker 1: off and do things for the community as well on shore.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so they'll they'll do some things, but it's it's

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Speaker 2: more so stuff to keep the ship running, so doing

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Speaker 2: fit out and stuff like that, right, right, they'll help

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Speaker 2: with training and stuff, but they have, yeah, they have.

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Speaker 2: They'll hire places out on shore to see their rehabilitation

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Speaker 2: and rehabilitation centers as well. So they call that the

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Speaker 2: Hope Center, and so sometimes the carpenters will have to

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Speaker 2: go and fit out places like that and do repair

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Speaker 2: work and stuff like that. Because I'm sure you jump

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Speaker 2: on the website, there's tons of different roles you can

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Speaker 2: see people do.

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Speaker 1: I imagine with some of the patients you treat, they

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Speaker 1: do have to be rehabilitated off the ship, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: after as part of the recovery.

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Speaker 2: And we find this because of the poverty. Often people

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Speaker 2: often come very malnourished and not physically fit to undergo

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Speaker 2: the major surgery that they have to do. So that's

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Speaker 2: a big part of why we stay in the one

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Speaker 2: place for such a long time, is that we'll have

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Speaker 2: these patients, will bring them into the Hope Center, make

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Speaker 2: sure they get good nutritions, you know, six weeks beforehand,

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Speaker 2: have their operations sometimes it's multiple stage operations, and then

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Speaker 2: bring them back, make sure they've got occupational therapy, therapy,

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Speaker 2: all those things so that what they have done is

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Speaker 2: done really well. That's one of the things that just

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Speaker 2: makes serving with the Mercy Ships amazingly that they excel

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Speaker 2: in the things that they do.

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Speaker 1: Brian, I think that's an amazing thing. You've been doing.

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Speaker 1: Good on you keep that up. And how fascinating to

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Speaker 1: hear about Mercy Ships, which up until a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks ago I'd never heard about. And what an interesting thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they've got plenty of bits on YouTube. They've

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Speaker 2: also got a show on you can stream through the

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Speaker 2: Angel app called it what's it called? It was on

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Speaker 2: SBS called the Surgery Ship. I think a buck just

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Speaker 2: be called the Mercy Ship on Angel and you can

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Speaker 2: see a whole lot of people's stories and it really

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Speaker 2: is an incredible organization and it's an absolute privilege to

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Speaker 2: be part of.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on your Brian, well done for what you've

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Speaker 1: done in the past, and your brother to I hope

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Speaker 1: he enjoys it and sounds like he'll be under your

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Speaker 1: wing at least for the first one. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: your time tonight.

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Speaker 2: My absolutely pleasure. Thanks so much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Brian Ambrose, who is a local, lives here

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Speaker 1: in Adelaide and a volunteer on Mercy Ship, had never

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Speaker 1: heard of them before. I reckon it was the SBS

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Speaker 1: doto that Vic had seen and he called in on

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Speaker 1: how interesting. And they go around and people all over

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Speaker 1: the world, including from Adelaide take part helping others around

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Speaker 1: the world. How absolutely fascinating who knew