Screening Day Mourning

Monday, March 7th, was our first big screening day in Freetown. Lots of preparation had gone into mobilizing all the people and resources we would need to screen thousands of potential patients. Our team assembled (mostly between 4:00 and 5:30am) at the national stadium, including a large number of local police, security personnel and translators, and so did thousands of people seeking what we could offer. At past screenings there had often been some isolated problems in the crowd, but this time things were very different. The following is my personal account of what happened. By 10:00am as our screening process was progressing the crowd outside the stadium had become agitated and the security forces present were struggling to maintain order. The crowd pressed in toward the area near where people were being brought into the stadium grounds. At around 10:25 a large, steel car gate at the front of the crowd burst open under the pressure. The lock was broken off and the steel bars in the concrete were bent back and dislodged. The result was heartbreaking. As the people in the front of the crowd suddenly flowed through the gate, those in the rear pressed forward causing people to stumble and be trampled. One man was killed and 12 people hospitalized. Several minutes later the police were able to get the gate closed and restore some order. Many of our medical crew immediately began treating the injured and preparing them for transport to hospital. Screening was discontinued and our crew packed up and returned to the ship much earlier than planned. Among the first to leave the stadium were the Academy kids who had come to help entertain the children of adult patients who had come to the screening. It was a very tense and very sad day for all involved. There is a statement on the Mercy Ships website at the following link: http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/screening-day-update#

There are also a number of newspaper articles that can be found online (keywords that worked well for me in finding articles: "stampede freetown stadium"). There has been a great deal of effort poured into analyzing the event since by our leadership to identify ways to improve safety at screenings. It is a far more complex event than one might think. They have also been trying to come up with stategies on how to reach those still in the city who we were unable to connect with at the screening. There were a large number of people in the crowd on Monday who had very visible evidence of some of the kinds of problems we can treat. It seems clear to me that the crowd at the screening and the tragedy there highlight the extent of desperation that the people here feel. The crew have been processing this past week and working through the emotions and questions that have come with this event. It hasn't been easy at all, but we have to move forward. I trust that God will give us the grace to do that.

John