Shanksteps # 65
May 17, 2007
Have you wondered what your donated money does at our hospital in Koza? Well recently your money saved the life of a man that would have otherwise died! We recently received the lab equipment that was purchased with donations. A man from world wide labs came and installed the equipment and trained our lab techs to use the equipment. WE can now do electrolytes, liver enzymes. Oh what a blessing that is! I cant order them every day like in the US but if I really need them they are there.
We had a gentleman come in this last week with electrical burns. He has been walking to the dispensary where he works and saw a downed line and people were ducking under it (about 5 feet off the ground) and continuing on their way. So he did the same. Unfortunately for him the power company did a test to see wether the system was functioning properly sending power out. With the downed line, the electricity caught him in the back of the neck and exited both feet from knees down. They brought
him to the hospital in a puspus. (a two wheeled, push cart) Fortunately the current had not sent him into an arrythmia (abnormal heart rhythm). Over the next few days he did well. We hydrated him possible myoglobinuria (myoglobin in the urine). And did some of our new tests on him. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, lactate, chloride. All these were nearly normal. A few days later he started having involuntary contractions of his hands. These resolved spontaneously. He then had them again with
his jaw contracted too. I repeated Magnesium and potassium and these were both were low and Mag was very low. I had received some Magnesium IV from my father when they visited. After receiving this his level was normal and all symptoms were gone. Had this happened before the lab equipment was here I wouldn’t have been able to find out what was wrong and he would have declined and passed away. So I just want to thank all of you for your generosity. It is making a huge difference, for us and
for patients like this, YOU SAVED HIS LIFE! He is healing well now. He did not have any of the possible limb threatening complications. We that you also for your prayers. Please continue to pray for him.
Another piece of news is that we had visitors recently. Gary Roberts and family visited. They are new missionaries to our area of the globe with Gospel Ministries International. We enjoyed having them here. We are working with the community to reopen the Koza airstrip. We hope his mission may be able to work closely with us in the future. Please keep them in your prayers also as they start the difficult task of opening new mission work here in West Africa.
We look forward to our time back in the USA. We will be leaving mid-June and returning the beginning of August. Seems like a long time. But with all the traveling to see relatives, it went very fast last time. Please pray for us as we leave around midnight on June 18th (6PM EST) to head home. We pray God continues to bless you in your various activities and that He is honored in all that you do. In His Service, Shank’s