Saturday & Sunday, June 3 and 4,
Hi this is Gayle. Wow the outreach clinics have been unbelievable. We saw 220 patients in the last two days. Their stories break your hearts. They come with debilitating injuries or illness that they have been suffering with for years. They are not able to get treated because they have no money. Some of them attended clinics or a hospital and received a diagnosis but could not afford the surgeries and or treatments. It is unbelievable the suffering they have had to endure. We have transferred 73 to Selian to our ortho clinic at Selian on Monday or to other speciality doctors. Hope Ministries will be paying for their medical diagnostic tests, treatment and surgeries. Please pray for all these people that we can help them to free them from suffering so they can live free of pain.
This is my 31st trip to TZ and I have faced many challenges but nothing like I experience on Saturday. I was examining a patient with some people came caring an elderly lady in on a chair and said it was an emergency. I went to assess her and she did not have a heart rate and was not breathing. I asked for help to lower her to the floor. I had a nurse and doctor from Tanzania working with me and it because clear to me that they were unsure of what to do. Because she did not have a heart rate I started cardiac massage and then established a heart rate and then she was not breathing. I have carried a breathing mask in my medical bags for years and never had to use it. Praise God I had it and then gave her breaths. She was slow to respond and I called upon the Holy Spirit and prayed to please guide me to help this patient. A sense of panic overcame me when I realized that I had no oxygen, no emergency meds and no ambu bag to breath for her. Then I felt a feeling of relief and I knew the Holy Spirit was their with me and praise God she responded and then was talking to us. I checked her oxygen level and it was normal…praise God. We were in remote area and it was wet and muddy and had to walk a ways to get to the church we were at. So we had to get a Turk-tuk to transport her to the nearest health facility. I continued to pray until I received word that she was stable. Well that is an experience I will never forget…..but praise God for being there with me. I then had a teaching session with the Tanzanian medical people on CPR and they were so interested in learning. They had studied it but not actually performed it so were very nervous and thanked me for being there. I had to take 5 so I could get my heart rate to come down and then we finished the clinic. Lift this beautiful lady up in prayer.
Foster had no idea what to expect with the outreach clinics and she saw things that were a bigger issues for these patients. She felt the most challenging part was learning what questions to ask and learning what was culturally appropriate. Another challenge for her was not being sure what to assess for and what was normal or not, but she felt those skills developed over time through my assessments and teachings. She expressed it was gratifying when we could assess what was wrong and treat and then send patients for further treatment that would improve their life. What affected her was thinking of all the patients that we are not able to help and will continue to suffer all their lives.
Today we attended church services at a community church where a lot of the missionaries from all the world attend. They worshipped with beautiful songs and the sermon touched each us in what is going on in the world and what we have been doing as far as our mission work.
We then went shopping in what we call their Walmart, which was an open market. We bought food that we packaged and will be brought to the patients during the teams visits to hospice patients.
Greetings to all my friends and family. Please continue to pray for us. We picked up Dr. Wheeler at the airport and we are ready to have clinic in the morning. I love and miss you all.
Mama Gayle
