Perhaps I (Peter is writing this week to give Ann a well deserved blog author rest) should start at the beginning, back in March when Don Stephens (Mercy Ships President) was aboard he mentioned that 60 Minutes was thinking about doing a story about Mercy Ships, he noted that nothing was definite and asked that we keep the information confidential. We immediately had thoughts of a Mike Wallace hard hitting type interview but hoped if they came it would be a story with a more positive bent. We did not think much more about it until I was in Texas at the IOC at the end on March and I was approached by Don and asked if we would be interested in being interviewed as 60 minutes was interested in our perspective as we had both served on the Navy's Hospital Ship USNS Mercy.
A junior producer arrived almost 2 weeks ago and started getting more background information and scouting out the ship. She was followed a few days later by a senior producer and a South African team of 2 cameramen and a sound engineer. The team started shooting and shooting and shooting what I learned is called B role in the industry. B role are the pictures of background that are fit in between the interview segments. They took pictures of all aspects of life on the ship and were present for rounds on the wards (Peter was in a few shots). I am sure they have over 10 hours of B role footage. Most of it will never be seen as the entire story will be edited down to 12 to 13 minutes by air time. We both were interviewed by the producers for over 20 minutes on Tuesday and asked many insightful questions. The story is likely to focus on Don Stephens the founder as well as Dr. Gary Parker (the Oral Surgeon) and his family who have lived and worked on the ship for over 20 years. The team selected a few patients whose story they wanted to follow including a woman from Nigeria with an Ameloblastoma.
Ameloblastoma is a jaw tumor that is benign in the sense that it does not spread to other areas of the body but is locally very destructive and if left untreated will eventually cause the patient to succumb to a slow and agonizing death by suffocation. These tumors occur in the west but are generally taken care of by a dentist or oral surgeon when they are only a few millimeters in size. Here in West Africa they grow to be massive over many years. Surgical treatment involves removing the diseased portion of the jaw bone and replacing it with a titanium bone plate. After the patient's mouth has healed for 3 months they come back for a bone graft which is harvested from the hip and placed around the jaw bone plate to strengthen it. Once the bone graft has taken and fused to titanium (a process that takes over 6 months) the patient can be fitted with dentures. Here are some pictures of a patient with this tumor and a post-operative x-ray of a patient with a bone plate.
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| Bone Plate Xray |
So on Thursday Peter got miked ( no make-up however) and was filmed doing the admission interview of the Nigerian woman with Ameloblastoma. Let me tell you that even the shoulder held TV camera is pretty big. So we will have to see if this segment of "Must see TV" ends up on the cutting room floor.
Scott Pelley arrived Friday night in Togo and on the ship Saturday morning to start doing interviews and observe the surgery of the Ameloblastoma patient. We both got a chance to meet him and found him to be incredibly gracious and down to earth. It was strange to hear the voice that has come into our living room nightly as we watch the news right in front of you. After hearing about his work commute I don't think any of us have anything to complain about. Scott did the evening news Thursday night left the studio immediately went to the airport and left for Togo (via Paris) and arrived late Friday night (no corporate jet). He spent over 12 hours on the ship working on Saturday and put in another 11 hours today before leaving for the airport to fly back to New York. He will arrive in New York Monday and head straight to the studio to do Monday night's CBS Evening News.
The 60 minutes segment should air sometime in the fall. I know this post was not as humorous as Ann fair (she is the better writer). We pray that you all have a good week and await what is in store for us the last few weeks we have in Togo.
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