Here are a few stories and photos of some of our recent recipients of supplies and equipment. We applaud the efforts of all of the organizations and individuals who work so hard to provide medical aid to the underserved.
If you have a story you would like to tell us about how you’ve experienced MedWish supplies and equipment saving lives around the world, please email your thoughts and/or photos to Amy at
aelliott@medwish.org.
Story List
A Week in the Life of the Hospital for Women and Children-- Koutiala, Mali
By: Jean Viers
In (Koutiala) Mali, West Africa, where 70% of all women give birth unattended, where one in ten women dies during the pre-peri-post natal stages of pregnancy and where one in four children never reaches his or her fifth birthday, a hospital has been built as a center of hope to improve those statistics among women and children.
This hospital rises among the rubble of the outskirts of this town, a testimony to what can be done by caring people looking beyond their own personal needs. What began as a dream of Dr. David Thompson, missionary doctor/surgeon/director at Bongolo Hospital in Gabon and a group of missionary nurse practitioners who ran six bush clinics within a six mile radius of Koutiala, the hospital plans were drawn up and presented in 2000. In February of 2005, the hospital was dedicated and in May of 2005 the staff began seeing patients.
The hospital was staffed by one American born and trained OB/GYN, Dr. Dan Nesselroade, two registered nurses, two pediatric nurse practitioner, and one nurse practitioner/midwife.
In addition, a Malian nurse anesthetist and two Malian doctors began working and training with Dr. Dan Nesselroade to learn advanced skills in their fields. Many Malian nurses are working there and learning daily how to properly take care of these mothers and their babies and the illnesses that surround that population.
From May 2006 to May 2007, over 1,000 babies were delivered, about twenty five percent more than had been anticipated. From May 2007 to May 2008 it is anticipated that over 2,000 babies will be delivered. Even as this is written (March 2008), those numbers are bearing themselves out.
When the hospital opened, prenatal care was offered immediately, as well as offering well-baby clinics providing screenings and vaccinations. Women line up very early in the morning, either for their own checkups or checkups for their children. They don’t seem to mind waiting hours for their turn.
In February 2007, as a registered nurse, I had the privilege of working with a team in the hospital to cover a time for the entire mission staff to be away together on a prayer retreat for five days. It was the first time in a year that Dr. Nesselroade had been away from the hospital for more than 48 hours.
On our first morning of ‘grand rounds’ we visited each bedside to discuss what was happening with each in-patient. In a small room fill four hospital beds, an isolette and an incubator. Each inhabitant had his/her own story. Two of the adult patients had just had C-sections and they would stay in this room the first 24-hours after their delivery. Our sickest patient was a young women, Ami, probably 17 years old, who delivered her baby early because she came in so sick with Typhoid Fever and Malaria and demon possession. Her baby stayed in the isolette at her bedside, although she was too ill to take care of her new son. Ami had many, many complications and with intensive work and several blood transfusions and a lot of prayer, she began to improve. At the end of our nearly three week stay, Ami was able to sit up and eat broth and begin to take care of her newborn. Her blood was tested and her donor blood tested by machines donated by agencies like MedWish.
The fourth adult bed was occupied by the mother of the newborn son in the incubator. Her baby boy, who did not have a name yet (infant mortality is so high that babies are often not named until they are two weeks old). At that time, he was the smallest infant to survive. When he was born, he weighed about 2# 6 oz. He could not breathe well enough to live outside the incubator and he was so little that he had not developed a suck yet, so he was fed his mother’s milk through a tube inserted into his nose and into his stomach. We named him Moussa (translates Moses) and there is more to his story, later.
The main ward housed thirteen beds, each one full. When a woman has a normal vaginal delivery, she has the privilege of staying for 24 hours, if she wants. Many of the Malian women will stay the minimum amount of time required, four hours, then walk, with their newborn back to their villages. Several moms lay in the beds with their sick babies. Most of them suffered from “failure to thrive” syndrome and were being fed through tubes in their noses. Those tubes are cleaned after one baby is finished with it and used for another sick infant. One baby had been born with shoulder distotia and one newborn was suspected to be a hermaphrodite and wasn’t expected to live once she left the confines of the hospital.
During that one five-day week, not only did we minister to those listed above but we were able to provide health care to many delivering mothers and their newborns.
Our second delivery, without the presence of the full-time American staff, was a mother attempting to deliver twins. Her first twin was lying sideways in her womb and the second one was ready to deliver feet first. Without the presence of the hospital, the ultrasound that we, (in America no longer needed), and the ability to perform a C-section, the woman and her twins would not have survived.
A frightened Malian woman appeared to be going through a normal labor process. This was the woman’s twelfth pregnancy. All of her previous babies had been born dead. With the ability of checking her with ultrasound, albeit a unit that we (Americans) deemed obsolete, it was discovered that she was placenta previa. After a successful C-section, this woman beamed with the excitement of her first live birth. She immediately named her baby Jana, after the nurse who discovered her problem.
Not all deliveries had happy endings. One mom labored alone in her village for several days. Her labor stopped and she didn’t do anything about it for four days. When she came to the hospital, she had a prolapsed cord. When she delivered, her amniotic fluid was putrid and there was meconium staining present. She delivered a baby boy who struggled to breath from the beginning. The hospital did not have the equipment or the staff to provide intensive care at that time. The baby was tended to until he became as stable as we could make him, but it was apparent that he struggled to breath. He survived through the night, but was found dead in his isolette in the early morning hours. His mother and father carried him back to their village where he was buried. Prenatal care and education could have prevented his death. The hospital is working hard to provide that care/education.
Near the end of one day, a local taxi driver sped into the compound honking his horn and driving right up to the open porch around the hospital. In the backseat was a very young woman, nearly ready to deliver her baby and having grand mal seizures. We believe that she had toxemia. Amid her seizures when attempts were made to examine her, she resisted to the point that it was decided that she would need to have a C-section. Both mother and baby survived and became healthy.
At the end of our stay, Baby Moussa still stayed in his incubator, but only at night. He was progressing, but still hadn’t developed a suck reflex. A simple pacifier would have helped. We had discovered that his father spoke English and he asked us if we thought his baby would survive. We told him that we hoped he would and that we were praying for him. This Malian had access to email (quite unusual) and he promised to stay in touch. The father’s name is David and “Moussa’s” mom’s name is Ami (not the sick one). About a month after we returned home we started hearing from David, Moussa, now named Daouda (Malian for David) was growing in leaps and bounds. Over the course of the following six months we continued to hear about Daouda and pictures are included here. Daouda is healthy and well and thriving because of the care he was able to receive at The Hospital for Women and Children. We hope to meet with this family when we return in April 2008.
We delivered many normal, healthy babies using delivery beds that had been donated, gurneys that had been donated, donated surgical instruments, in fact, everything in that hospital had been donated with the exception of one refurbished, hospital grade autoclave. The work of agencies like MedWish helps to provide all of those donated items. Their work is vital to the work that is going on in third-world countries.
We have just returned from nearly three weeks in Koutiala. The hospital is thriving and we continue to rely on MedWish to help meet their need of medical supplies. We had the privilege of meeting with Moussa and Daouda and Ami again and, yes, Daouda is growing in leaps and bounds. His father told us that the hospital has made such a different in the lives of the families of those living in the Koutiala.
The first morning we arrived at the hospital we learned that over the weekend there were FIVE sets of twins. One set of twins had been allowed to go home the day before but there were still four sets there. Most of those twins would not have survived without the help of the donated warming tables, feeding tubes, and manual resuscitators.
Thank you, MedWish and the agencies that donate to you for helping to make The Hospital for Women and Children in Koutiala, Mali, West Africa a beacon of light and of hope for the women and children living there.
Jean Viers (part of)
The Shelby Mali Team
Shelby Alliance Church
Hope for Honduras
By: Frank Peacock, M.D.
Organization: Hope for Honduras
Receiving Region: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Date Received: March 23, 2008
Project: Medical Mission trip--Medical team consisted of 2MDs, other lay individuals
Our Story:
Attached is a picture of Olga, the nurse who works at the orphanage. The picture of the room is the “enfermeria”—the clinic where Olga works with no running water, no electricity, and all the light that comes in comes in through the holes in the wall. The suitcases on the floor hold all the medical supplies. They had to be kept in their original suitcases to keep the mice from eating them.
Also attached are the pictures of the 6 children who live at the orphanage. It was surprising how normal they were when you hear their life stories—and now they live in an orphanage and have some hope of growing up and having a good life.
Frank Peacock, M.D.
International Medical Alliance
By: Linda Graham, M.D.
Organization: International Medical Alliance
Receiving Region: La Descubierta and Jimani, Dominican Republic
Date Received: February 21, 2008
Project: Medical Mission trip--Medical team consisted of 7 MDs, 1 PA, 2 NPs, 1 Pharmacist, 18 medical students. Approximately 1500 patients treated.
Our Story:
I had a very eye-opening trip to the Dominican Republic. Thank you for your help with the suture and the scalpel blades. They were just what we needed.
An ophthalmologist accompanied us on the trip and did about 10 surgical procedures a day at the La Descubierta community hospital near where we stayed. The extent of untreated disease was unbelievable. We are working on establishing a permanent clinic there.
I attached a brief description and pictures of our trip.
Thanks again.
Linda Graham, M.D.
International Medical Alliance, By. Linda Graham - Photos PDF
LAMb International, By. Lynn and Ruby Johnston
By: Michael Elliott -University of Dayton
Receiving Region: Xela, Guatemala
Date Received: May 2008
Supplies Provided: gloves, rehydration salts, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, etc.
Our Story:
Nestled in the highlands of Guatemala, the health clinic, Primeros Pasos, serves ten communities surrounding the city of Xela. Primeros Pasos partners with schools in the countryside offering free, routine checkups, medications, and dental services. The clinic also runs educational programs on numerous topics for children and adults. During the first half of the summer, I volunteered in the clinic registering patients, running the pharmacy, and working as a lab tech. assistant. On behalf of Primeros Pasos, I would like to thank MedWish for their support of medical supplies.
Michael Elliott
University of Dayton
By: Robert Wenz, M.D.
Receiving Region: Coacalco, Mexico
Medical Project: 170 cataract surgeries performed at government hospital
Date Received: April 2008
Photos provided by: Robert Wenz, M.D.
By: Lynn Krumholz
Receiving Region: Liwonde National Park, Malawi
Date Received: July 26, 2008
Receiving Hospital: Balaka District Hospital
Items Received: gloves, skin cleansers, dressings, gauze, tape, etc.
Photos provided by: Lynn Krumholz
WebSite: www.helpmalawichildren.org
By: Garima Sarda
Receiving Region: Managua, Nicaragua
Medical Project: 250 patients treated on mission trip
Date Received: May 24, 2008
Our Story:
The supplies donated by MedWish were split into two groups when I got to Nicaragua. Some of the supplies, like the blood pressure cuffs, glucose tests, lancets, hygiene supplies and toothbrushes, were used by us at the clinics we worked at daily. The other supplies, such as the surgical equipment, were donated to the local hospital.
At the clinics, the patients always appreciated getting the free check-up!
When we went to drop off the supplies at the hospital, they gave us a tour
of their facilities…very different from a U.S. hospital!
Thank you very much for the donation!
-Garima Sarda
By: Ian Warthin, Partners in Health
Receiving Hospital: Zanmi Lasante
Region: Central Plateau, Artibonite Haiti
Date Received: April 2008
Website: www.pih.org
Our stories are often not best captured in individual cases but more so in institutional improvements. The container we received from MedWish International has provided us with invaluable tools at a number of different sites in Haiti’s Central Plateau and Artibonite regions.
The AMSCO 1080 OR table was immediately sent to St. Marc in an effort to provide surgical services to the 1.5 million people who live in the Bas Artibonite region free of charge. The donation of Spectrum Surgical Instruments will not only provide our existing surgeons and OBGyns the needed tools for their operations and deliveries but it will also provide future trips by surgical specialists with many of their necessary tools they would otherwise have to purchase before arriving at our sites. Over the span of three hours the surgical teams divided up the boxes of surgical instruments amongst the specialties.
Our ENT visiting surgeons, ophthalmologist and dentist also all benefited from these instruments. Orthopedic surgeons will now be able to perform many types of surgeries previously unavailable to the population we serve.
- Hand surgery
- Shoulder and elbow surgey
- Total joint reconstruction (arthroplasty)
- Pediatric orthopedics
- Foot and ankle surgery
- Spinal disk fusions
- Musculoskeletal oncology
- Surgical sports medicine
- Orthopedic trauma
Before the arrival of these items we could not dream of being able to support an orthopedic team.
All four pediatric cribs are now in place and filled at the pediatric ward at the main site in Cange. The seven anesthesia machines that were donated are presently being repaired by our biomedical team with their new parts. Two of them have already been installed in the OR at Hinche and the Women’s Health surgical room in Cange.
This account of how the supplies were distributed obviously does not tell the individual anecdotes of each patient. But when you are the only free provider of surgical care in a country where 65% of the population must survive on under a dollar a day, you can guarantee that the majority of these patients would not have been able to receive this care had it not been for our clinics and the important partnerships with groups like MedWish.
~
Ian Warthin, Partners in Health
By: Randie Marsh
Receiving Region: Nairobi, Kenya
Date Received: May 2008
Website: www.soteni.org
Our Story:
SOTENI’s medical camp took place on May 24, 2008 at the Tigania West constituency, which is located in Kenya’s Eastern Providence as part of the Meru North District. The medical camp was made possible through a collaboration of many people and organizations. SOTENI played a key role in the group effort by taking a lead in organizing and coordinating all aspects of the camp.
The large volume of donations from MedWish was instrumental to the camp’s success. A variety of supplies were donated from many locations throughout Kenya. Numerous organizations, churches, and businesses contributed. All donations were appreciated and used by the medical camp. Many people also donated their time to the camp. Doctors, nurses, and other volunteers came from great distances in order to offer their services. In only one day, over 7,000 people participated in some aspect of the camp and over 3,000 patients were served. SOTENI continually stressed that all goods and services offered to patients were completely free. The medical camp was not set up to make a profit, but rather to help those who may not have otherwise been able to receive adequate healthcare.
Hon. Kilemi Mwiria, Vice Chair of the SOTENI Kenya Board of Directors, was the driving force behind the medical camp and was vital in making the camp a reality. Representatives from SOTENI present at the camp included Randie Marsh, Director; Pat McLarney, RN; and Emily Marsh, volunteer. Dr. Sarah Kilemi, Hon. Kilemi Mwiria’s wife, was also in attendance. Her presence, along with the other representatives from SOTENI, insured that the medical camp was run appropriately.
-Randie Marsh
