Montville Man Volunteers Time Aboard Hospital Ship

As a retired sailor with 26 years of experience working with a major trading company, Uncasville native Patrick Dollard is no stranger to the sea.

This year, he flew to South Africa to work as a Deck Rating onboard the Africa Mercy, a ship run by the Mercy Ships volunteer organization, which provides healthcare and other services to needy parts of the world.

In his two months with the organization, Dollard spent time helping with the upcoming voyage to Sierra Leone, working onboard during the ship and ultimately arriving at the final destination shortly before March 8, when it was time for him to head home.

Dollard became interested in doing volunteer work after he retired in 2008. He already had three decades of working on ships, from the time he graduated from the Maritime Academy in 1974. His family came to the area when his father transferred to the Coast Guard station in New London.

Dollard, who goes to a local church, knews of Mercy Ships because they were an organization that he had donated to in recent years. Earlier, his daughter Rachel Newer had volunteered three months on board one of the health ships and two months on the ground in Sierra Leone where they taught community health to villagers. On board the ship, she had to take classes; in the country she ate a diet of rice and beans.

“She came back 25 pounds lighter,” Dollard recalled.

 His wife Judy, who is a nurse at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, and is thinking about volunteering some of her time with Mercy Ships when she retires, encouraged him to go.

According to its marketing director Claire Bufe, Mercy Ships got started in 1978. Personnel from the ships have treated more than 520,000 patients in medical and dental clinics on the mainland. The organization has also trained health care workers and doctors in the nations it visits and had worked on projects that educate the community and create infrastructure. In all, the organization credits itself with reaching out to 2.9 million people worldwide.

Africa Mercy is currently the only ship in Mercy Ship’s current fleet. At 800 feet in length, it holds 350 people on board. It comes outfitted with operating rooms as well as quarters for crew and doctors.

On Jan 8, Dollard flew out to meet the ship in South Africa. Upon arrival, he had to travel to the port city of Durbin where the vessel was being outfitted with new generators. This was an important step because the previous set was causing vibrations that would make it impossible to perform surgery onboard. During the time in Durbin, Dollard kept busy with ship preparations. Among the supplies they took on were 23 Range Rovers that volunteers could use to travel inside the country.

At last, on Feb. 8, the ship was ready for departure. The transit to Sierra Leone to the north and west took 16 days

“About 50 percent of the days we were underway, I had to stand watch,” Dollard said.

Upon docking at the capital of Freeport, the ship took on medical supplies that had been shipped in advance. There would be another week of prepping before the ship could begin its first round of screenings.

In many ways Dollard’s time aboard the ship was similar to voyages he had made in the past. He slept on a bunk in shared quarters with other volunteers and worked eight-hour days with weekends off. Most of the time he spent onboard ship, but at port, he did find opportunities to go ashore to walk with friends. Before he left, he went to see a soccer game on the mainland.

He was also able to stay connected to the world at home through satellite phones and the Internet. Onboard ship, he was able to use access local news and Facebook—a change from the days when the ship radio was the only link seafarers had with the outside world.

“Thirty years ago, I used to call my wife once a week,” Dollard said.

While he had technology to keep closer to friends and family at home, he also made friends onboard. Some of the people that he got to meet included other volunteers that hailed from places like America, Sweden and New Zealand. The ship also had several doctors from Ghana and Liberia that the organization paid to practice medicine. Everyone onboard ship spoke fluent English. Dollard said that he was impressed with the religious faith of the doctors from African countries and found them friendly.

“They didn’t stand off,” he said. Now that he is at home again, he expects to use Facebook to be in touch with the people he met while at sea

After his two months with the organization, Mercy Ships’ work in Sierra Leone has just begun. They will be docked in port until December of this year and in that time they will perform surgeries to remove facial and dental tumors as well as work with orthopedics, cleft lips and palates. Most of the dental work is done ashore, Dollard said.

The nation suffers from poverty and lack of medical treatment. The civil war 15 years ago, portrayed in the movie “Blood Diamond,” has left its wounds upon the land and on the people.

Many of the afflictions that Mercy Ships treats, such as facial tumors, would have been treated quickly in developed nations, but according to Dollard, can remain a part of someone’s life for even ten years. This is especially difficult for disfiguring disorders. After surgery, people can return to their communities and enjoy a new life.