We began the day with 'Chapel' attended by the entire hospital staff who filled a great room. We heard (but unfortunately couldn't understand) a very well received devotional given first in French by Katherine and translated into Bombara by another gentleman. My friend, Moesh (Moses), the hospital chaplain, was sitting right beside them (what a Godly man). It was a privilege to convey the greetings from our pastor, Mark Ashton, the entire staff, and our whole congregation at Christ Community Church in Omaha, as brothers and sisters in Christ, with the entire staff at the hospital. They have great appreciation for the contributions made by CCC towards the facilities and equipment at the hospital.
After the 7:30am chapel devotions, rounds were made by the attending physicians in both the adult and pediatric wards before clinics were conducted.
There is an audiologist from Mayo in Rochester who is visiting for a few weeks to conduct sophisticated hearing tests and to distribute about 10 'solar-powered' hearing aids to the children who need them most (I never knew there was such a thing). There were also leukemia patients that I met last year who are in remission and receiving periodic IV therapy, severe burn (>40%) survivors who were doing very well with their skin grafts, numerous preemies and newborns every day (about 4.5 delivered each day)- the new total exceeding 8000. After clinics there is the surgical schedule with about 3-4 cases per surgeon. They recently had their busiest month with just over 80 surgeries in January.
We observed U/V prolapse repairs (after 10 births) and the debredment of a severe osteomylitis of a woman's ankle (the extent of the wound she came to the hospital with is far too graphic to portray here but I'll share the x-ray), but now, she has a chance of surviving; time will tell whether she will keep her foot. A maxofacial surgeon is present 7 months out of the year reconstructing horrendous disease, disfigurement and disintegration of facial structures we seldom see in the US. A severe cleft palate case is insignificant when compared to some of his worst cases.
The 'tour' included a visit to what is probably the most sophisticated medical lab in West Africa. It's amazing what God is accomplishing here through the hands and feet of His people. Our team also helped with "the chore" of preparing all the medications into prepackaged packets we will be distributing at the village clinic of Soun tomorrow. There will be much to tell after that experience, but it will be an 18 hour day; it may take another day before we send a report.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support for our team and the entire staff at the hospital... what an amazing place.
Here is a link to photos from today.
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