Dear Praying
Friends,
If you followed
the news over the last month, you have heard that ELWA hospital has been at the
center of the Ebola crisis in Liberia.
We are praising God for his mercy to our missionary colleagues, Dr. Kent
Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who have been completely healed from the Ebola
virus. They have been reunited with
their families and are taking some time to rest and recover their strength.
The healthcare
system in Liberia has had to go through a complete reboot after every single
hospital in the city of Monrovia closed down to be decontaminated with bleach
water as a result of Ebola cases landing in Emergency Rooms, outpatient clinics and medical wards. When I
arrived on the 4th of August, ELWA hospital was in the middle of
this process.
On August 6th,
Dr. Brown, the medical director at ELWA hospital, opened the doors to
Obstetrics patients. When the patients started arriving, they had often been to
several other hospitals and traveled for hours seeking care. More than 35
cesarean sections were performed to save women and their babies in the first 20
days—sometimes two or three a day. This
past Sunday when I was on call, several women presented for care in various
stages of labor and three wound up requiring C-sections. One of them was
a teenager with a full term
pregnancy who had developed eclampsia, a combination of elevated blood pressure
and seizures that would be detected in advance if she had been able to attend
her regular pre-natal clinic. She was brought by her family, sprawled
across the back seat of a taxi, unresponsive and still seizing occasionally. We
had to give her a general anesthetic and perform an emergency cesarean.
She is doing well now with her baby and will soon go home.
There are other
medical emergencies that cannot be neglected much longer. Last week, I had a
phone call from a friend to appeal for their neighbor, a 13-year-old girl who was
very sick with severe abdominal pain. They had been to several hospitals but
none was able to accept her. The family was desperate. Dr. Brown,
who is a general surgeon, agreed to evaluate her even though the hospital was
only open for obstetrics. Her exam indicated peritonitis, an infection in her
abdomen, which would definitely require surgery. We waited all day Sunday
for Dr. Brown who was busy caring for critically ill Ebola patients in the
treatment center. Finally he came to see Lisa at around 8:30 p.m.
after what had already been an exhausting day. It was clear that her surgery
could not be put off, so we started operating at about 10 p.m. and ended after
midnight. Dr. Brown found four separate holes in her
intestine—perforations due to a typhoid fever infection. Each hole had to
be repaired and then her abdomen had to be washed out. I spent the night
on the pediatric ward monitoring her progress post-op, as she was quite ill
with fever and difficulty breathing after the surgery. Today I am happy
to report that Lisa is improving and slowly recovering (she is pictured here.)
But she is just one of so many people in Liberia who are at risk because of the
Ebola tsunami that swept through an already fragile healthcare system.
We are getting
news now that a couple other smaller facilities in Monrovia are opening,
allowing ELWA Hospital to open soon for additional services without being
overwhelmed with a huge flood of patients. On Thursday, the 28th,
we held a training session for all of our staff to review new triage procedures
and infection control techniques to help protect us from unknowingly getting
exposed to the Ebola virus. We hope to gradually increase our services
over the next couple of weeks to include children and adults, but we must first
make some changes to our building to allow us to triage everyone before they
enter the hospital grounds to check for any signs of Ebola Virus Disease
(EVD). A large shipment of personal protective gear arrived yesterday
from our partner, Samaritan’s Purse. This has been one of the key issues in
reopening—ensuring that we have adequate protective equipment. So we are
praising God for that!
Meanwhile, the
number of people contracting Ebola continues to rise. WHO predicts the final
numbers will be in the tens of thousands.
The isolation and treatment wards on our property are packed and
patients continue to come. While I am not involved in the units, Dr. Brown is
passionate about ensuring they provide the best possible care so he is dividing
his time between facilities. Thankfully, many people are surviving if they come
when they first show symptoms. We
rejoiced greatly that one of the ELWA nurses was released from the unit last
week.
Please continue
to pray! Here are a few requests:
1. That the
international response to the Ebola epidemic will be vigorous! Right now,
the systems put in place like ambulance transport and even the burial teams to
dispose of bodies are overwhelmed.
2. Pray for ELWA’s
ministry at this time, that we would be able to make a difference for Christ in
the lives of those who are sick.
3. Pray for the
ELWA staff, for safety and protection from infection with Ebola.
4. Pray
specifically for Dr. Brown and for Joe Wankollie, our SIM-ELWA Deputy Director
who is running the whole show at this time. They are carrying a very heavy
load.
In His
Strength, Rick
