Cameroon Shank steps #6

Cameroon Shank steps # 6 8-23-05
Hello Family and Friends,
We are two weeks into things here. We have just met
the other doctor that has been covering the hospital
for the last three months. Dr. Hamza has recently
finished medical school in Yaounde and is in the
process of being placed by the government. We are now
taking call. Audrey and him are switching call each
week, and I’m always on for surgical things. So far
(two days) it’s been nice. He is from near here and
reacts very well with staff and patients.
Yesterday we sat down with the administrator and
discussed all the finances of the hospital. It is in
real bad shape financially and has been unable to pay
its workers salaries for the last 3 months. They have
received about 1/3 of what they are supposed to get.
The hospital also owes past electric bills from
1998-2000. Owes the Union for many past things. Owes
tithe to the church. And a number of other creditors.
So it is essentially living from “hand to mouth”. We
pay for medications most used and IV fluids and
laboratory bare minimum. The real issue has been the
past year without constant physicians. When this
occurred the patients go to other facilities. And now
that it’s the rainy season people are out working and
the roads are so bad that people that normally come
from Nigeria can’t make it across the rivers. So this
makes it difficult to get the needed supplies to treat
the patients like we could. We very much appreciate
all the donations that were given to us. We brought
some smaller items with us like gloves, pulse oxymeter
by Nonin, rigid proctoscope, stethoscopes….and other
small items. We anxiously await our container, which
has apparently left the US and should arrive in Douala
by the end of September. How long it will take to
clear customs and make its way up Cameroon a thousand
kilometers only God would know. We pray for rapid
transit. Please pray for the financial situation of
the hospital and also for continued spiritual growth
of the employees in this difficult time that we all
will grow closer to God and serve His children here as
best we are capable of.
At the hospital there have been more interesting
surgeries. We had a patient come in with birth of a
baby at home then retained placenta. We attempted
about an hour to remove it unsuccessfully. The
patient had a low blood pressure and fast heart rate
indicating significant blood loss. So we took her to
the operating room and took out the uterus. Her
family refused to give her blood. So I donated it to
her preoperatively. With that and the other fluid she
stabilized then we took her when things were ready in
the operating room. With much prayer we were
successful in getting the uterus out and the patient
out of the operating room alive. The next day they
would still not give her any of their blood but we
were able to give some that had been donated for
someone else who had expired before receiving it. She
seems to be doing well about 4 days postoperatively
now. I am very thankful to have Audrey help me in
these surgeries as it is very helpful to have someone
who speaks English and adheres to sterile technique.
For this and many other reasons we look forward to the
student missionaries coming here to help. Our first
one is to arrive at the end of this week. She will
stay a month then another will come for a month. I
think this is invaluable to the student as I went on a
number of student mission trips myself in the past. I
would encourage anyone considering it to pursue it, as
it will undoubtedly change your life in a positive
way. We are happy to accept student missionaries as
is Dr. Appel in Bere, Chad. If you are not
considering being a student missionary I would
encourage you to help financially support one in your
church or through AHI or directly with someone
interested in serving overseas.
Power is one thing we are very thankful for. We have
it most of the time. It went out for about 8 hours
today which put a stop to some lab work and made
rounding difficult but most got done without much
difficulty. Fortunately there were no surgical
emergencies today. As mentioned before the power
company has threatened to cut off our power but as of
yet that has not occurred. We continue to pray for
this also.
So at 2 weeks into Koza we have good days and
difficult days. But regardless of how our feelings
are at the time we are all happy to be doing what God
has called us to do. We praise Him for leading in our
lives so directly in the past that we are confident He
will continue in the future. Please continue to lift
us up in your prayers. We would love to have visitors
if anyone of you are interested.
In His Service, The Shanks