Marie Elisa was 40 years old when a toothache turned into a pain that wouldn’t go away. At a pharmacy, she was given painkillers that relieved it for a while, but then her face started to swell.
For five years, she lived with an orange-sized tumor on her jaw. She tried traditional healers, but the lump kept growing; a doctor recommended surgery, but it was beyond her means. This farmer from Berangotra, Madagascar, and mother of four stopped farming her fields and selling at the market. Her family lost its livelihood, and her youngest daughter left school.
In 2024, a patient screening team from Mercy Ships was traveling through Madagascar when a cyclone hit the north of the island. With the rain and damaged roads, they had to change course and ended up in a village they hadn’t even planned to visit. There they saw her walking through the market and, as volunteer nurse Maddy Hartung recounts, three members of the team shouted: “Stop the bus!”.
Marie traveled for three days to Toamasina, where the hospital ship Africa Mercy was docked. Because she had lost a great deal of weight, she first joined a nutrition program, and weeks later she was approved for free surgery. After her operation, she said: “I thank God that the tumor was removed and I am healthy again”. Today she can return to working her fields and paying for her daughter’s schooling. Her husband, Claude, who had a cyst in one eye, also had surgery.