Saving lives, making a difference...

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Dan preaching a message on the four responses to the risen Lord found in Matthew 28

Thank you & Praise God!

We want to let you know that through your faithful giving, you are having a great impact for God's glory and kingdom. In our last newsletter, we wrote about some pressing financial needs at the hospital. Through your generous support, we now have the funds to cover the cost of the transformer for the hospital and the cost of the chemical reagents for the new chemistry machine for about six months! In addition, we were able to buy six more IV pumps and a new monitor for the operating room. We are grateful to God for you, your prayers, and your generosity. Thank you!

The long wait

When we visited Mali for the first time in 2011, we realized that although the care was good, it was very limited due to the lack of ventilators both in the operating room and on the floors. So before we left the States in 2012, Dan shared about some of these needs. One young couple was particularly moved because one of their children was born premature and spent several weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). They had saved money to remodel their kitchen but felt convicted by God to buy pediatric ventilators instead. Dan warned them that it would take several years for the ventilators to be purchased, shipped, installed and finally used. They said that it wouldn't be a problem. Two pediatric ventilators arrived on a shipping container in 2015 and waited in a closet for God's providential timing.

Meanwhile, we were also able to buy an anesthesia machine with a ventilator which also sat under a plastic cover waiting to be set up by an anesthesiologist. For the past two years, Dan has been doing major surgery under deep conscious sedation with a drug called ketamine due to the lack of an anesthesiologist and ventilators. Ketamine is commonly used in US pediatric emergency rooms to sedate children for small procedures like suturing lacerations, but never for complex operations.

This month it all converged as we had a visiting anesthesiologist and neonatologist from Georgia. A baby boy arrived at the hospital critically ill due to an intestinal perforation from Typhoid. He was placed on the anesthesia ventilator by the anesthesiologist, Jim Froehlich, during surgery and continued on the pediatric ventilator while we moved on to the next case. The only place for us to be able to watch the patient closely while continuing to work in the same room was the sink (before the neonatologist arrived). He is now doing very well.

Two weeks later, the first morning that Dr. Larry Wallin, the neonatologist, came to work, we were excitedly greeted by a nurse asking us to come quickly. We followed her to our "preemie" room. Another nurse was hand bagging a premature triplet who wasn't getting enough oxygen and whose heart rate was rapidly declining which was an ominous sign. Larry quickly intubated the baby and was able to raise the oxygen level while we quickly got the second ventilator ready. The oxygen quickly rose to normal levels and we left the patient on the ventilator overnight. The following morning we were able to remove the baby from the ventilator. He is now reunited with his two siblings and is doing very well.

This is Mahamadou and his mother. He was born with esophageal atresia, a condition in which there is a gap in the esophagus leading to an inability to feed by mouth. In addition there is usually a connection between the lower half of the esophagus and the trachea so stomach contents can enter the lungs leading to severe pneumonia and death. Usually, we operate on these children in the first few days of life to avoid these complications. Miraculously, this infant survived for two months with a feeding tube directly in the stomach while we waited for the arrival of Jim and Larry. We successfully performed the repair of his esophagus using both the anesthesia ventilator and the pediatric ventilator after surgery. One week later he began feeding by mouth for the first time and he has recently been discharged. His mother is a member of the majority religion but has been very open to the Gospel.

It is amazing to see God's perfect plan unfold before our eyes to save children who would have otherwise died. To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a survivor of esophageal atresia in our country due to the lack of a pediatric ventilator. God in his infinite wisdom moved a young couple's heart to give four years ago so that we could buy a ventilator. He moved others to give to buy an anesthesia machine with a ventilator. He moved Jim's and Larry's hearts to come help us in Mali. He brought Mahamadou into the world and kept him from aspirating his stomach contents into his lungs so that he could survive while waiting for these doctors to arrive. All to save this precious child's life for His eternal purpose and glory. I believe that God is drawing Mahamadou's mother to Himself and I'm excited to see how the rest of the story will unfold. We thank you for being faithful to our great God and for making a difference halfway across the world.

Please pray for this church of 5 families in the village of Woloso. We had a small taste of heaven as we worshipped together in this small simple mud-brick church building.