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Hands of Hope

Fenton and Pat
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Help Has Arrived

October 3, 2015

by Fenton Rees

October 3, 2015

As previously mentioned, the missionary medical crew at Bongolo is way below normal strength due to a combo of some itinerating and others back in the US for medical reasons. But reinforcements have arrived (Oct1); Jerry and Lilly Ann Rusher who we know from our home church (BCA). Jerry as a family practice doc and Lilly Ann as a nurse will be a great help.  

I (Fenton) continue to work on improving the electrical system of the eye clinic. Some of the initial work is just figuring out what they have there at present. Blue-prints or schematics ?   Naah !   And even if there were, there would be no way to know how accurately they represented reality. Fortunately I’ve had the help of Luke Thelander (13 yo son of medical director & surgeon Dr Keir).  Right now Luke is small and light for his age, which works great in having to get to difficult places in the attic to trace down where all the wiring goes.  Oh yes, and he is more acclimated to the heat in the attic too. Along the way I try to do a bit of a science lesson, and he seems to like it.  Maybe he’ll be an engineer when he grows up.

Here’s a sobering thought about my eye clinic electrical work.  If I am successful in improving the goodness of the electrical system, it will become invisible to the users;- they will become completely unaware of it;- like we are of the many systems in our bodies that are working just fine.

So far Pat has had 3 people die on her watch. The last was a lady who was a friend of the local Imam (Muslim leader). One night around bedtime the phone rang and one of the surgery residents wanted Pat down at the hospital ASAP;- there was panic in his voice. So I walked Pat down to the hospital from up here on the “hill” where the housing is, (you know snakes etc). Right from the front door of the OR block there was a trail of blood, and then the gurney they had used to get her to the operating room came out all covered in blood. I didn’t need to see anymore.  Pat and the crew did the best they could, but in spite of their heroic efforts, she died a couple of days later.  Pat will tell you that in this case in particular, every action by the medical staff was being watched by her family members;- every time she was touched, every IV etc. Let’s hope and pray that even though this didn’t end well, something about the way the care was given will cause them to pause and think.

All for now,

Blessings,

 

Fenton

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