Restoring Broken Bones

Montunrayo and her daughter, Elizabeth, had spent years traveling to healthcare facilities in Nigeria on a desperate search for help. Elizabeth, 14, was in significant pain because her right leg was deformed. The abnormality worsened as she got older, forcing her to walk almost entirely on her shin.

“I grew up knowing pain,” Elizabeth said. “Going to school, my friends would make fun of me and laugh. I was very sad.”

None of the hospitals they visited in Nigeria offered the surgery Elizabeth needed. Still, Montunrayo did not lose hope. She is a Christian and continued to trust the Lord. “I prayed that He would have mercy on me and send someone to help my child,” she said.

Her prayers were answered when she learned that Samaritan’s Purse doctors were coming to ECWA Hospital in Egbe, Nigeria. The orthopaedic specialty team came in Jesus’ Name to fix broken bones and to share the eternal hope of the Gospel.

Our World Medical Mission project organizes campaigns each year to take otherwise unavailable surgeries to the farthest parts of the globe. We send teams focused on urology, fistula repair, and dentistry, in addition to orthopaedics.

Many orthopaedic patients had harboured decades-long fractures and broken bones. The prolonged delay in proper treatment added to the complexity of our team’s surgical cases.

But doctors like Greg Hellwarth trusted God as they operated. He helped perform an osteotomy on Elizabeth’s right tibia to correct the deformity and allow her toes to point forward. 

Motunrayo couldn’t stop thanking God for sending Dr. Hellwarth and the Samaritan’s Purse group to help her daughter, who was overwhelmed with joy. “I know He is a big God, and I know He’s helped me today,” Motunrayo said.

While at Egbe, the Samaritan’s Purse team came alongside hospital chaplains to share God’s love with orthopaedic patients. Every patient received a copy of God’s Word in their language, and those who couldn’t read were given an audio Bible.

“More than making bones straight, we want to make the message of the Gospel clear,” said program manager Madison Strausbaugh. “It’s the love of Christ that compels us to be here.”

LIVELIHOODS RESTORED

Yohanna is a bivocational pastor who injured his collarbone when he flipped off his motorbike. “Life has been so difficult,” he said. “In addition to pastoring, I do lots of farm work and tend to goats and other livestock.”

A broken collarbone was more than a painful inconvenience—it prevented Yohanna from being able to work on the farm and to provide for his family. He had no way to turn his life around.

Our team operated on Yohanna’s collarbone and sent him home healed and excited to get back to work. “I knelt down after surgery and prayed to God to thank Him for these doctors who left their home to come here and take care of us,” he said. “I’ve learned that if I have something, I won’t keep it to myself—I will be a giver, just like the Samaritan’s Purse team.”

A BRIGHTER FUTURE

A girl named Peculiar arrived in Egbe with large scars on both her legs after two unsuccessful surgeries. Similar to Elizabeth, she had lived with a deformity since birth, but both her legs were at abnormal angles.

Peculiar is 15 and an excellent student. Her favourite subjects are math and art, and her hobbies are singing and reading. “One day, I’d love to write my own book,” she said.

But attending school was difficult. She can’t stand for long periods of time, let alone walk to school. Her mother paid taxi fares to and from school—but she couldn’t afford to do it every day.

“I had given up,” Peculiar said. “I said that I would never enter another surgery again after the first two failed, but when I heard about the Samaritan’s Purse doctors, I had to come.”

We praise God that our surgeons successfully operated on Peculiar. She told our team that she couldn’t wait to return to school and to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. "You have touched so many lives in unexpected ways. People here don’t have the finances to afford care like this, and that was my family,” she said. “But now, look at what’s happened—God is faithful.”