Hospital News
The numbers in the hospital continue to stay steady and/or increase which means that more people are receiving needed medical care. This is wonderful news!! In addition to the census increasing, the clinic is seeing more patients for general doctor visits and specialty clinics. To add even more activity, facilities renovations and construction continues. Fortunately, the general atmosphere in the hospital is positive as staff and patients see the quality of care improving and the number of people receiving care increasing. God continues to bless this mission in so many ways!
Construction Projects
Emergency Room Renovations
As mentioned in the earlier post, a work team was here in October to complete renovations on the side of the clinic that handles emergency care. Below are a few pictures showing the progression of this facilities project.
Demolition and beginning mason work in emergency.
The team finishing up - even with patients waiting to be seen...
A renovated emergency bay in use
The floors need to be tiled, but we now have 4 new emergency bays as well as two isolation rooms.
New (Un)Loading Dock
To assist with unloading the Sea Containers that bring needed supplies for the hospital and missionary families, a new loading dock has been constructed. Since we just unload and don't load containers here, it seems more accurate to call it an unloading dock.
Early Construction on the Dock
The finished dock from two angles
Solar Project
As many of you know, the Solar Project has been in the works for a few years. Presently, most of the funding for the project is secured. The project has been engineered, equipment is ordered and in the process of being shipped and a new building is being constructed to house the generators and related equipment. The solar panels will be mounted on parts of the hospital roof. Installation is scheduled for the early part of 2016.
The following photos show the progression of the solar building over the last few weeks.
Pouring the floor
Patients waiting to see the hygienist and dentist.
The following photos show the progression of the solar building over the last few weeks.
Ground-Breaking
Preparation for the foundation
Pouring the footings
Rock Base for the Floor
Pouring the floor
Walls going up
Progress at the end of November
Recovery Room and Sterilization Room Renovations
Back in September, two new Autoclave machines were installed in the sterilization room.
This past week, a team from Rockville (they had some doing construction and some doing a dental clinic) worked on renovations to the surgery recovery room, the sterilization room and some storage areas.
Medicine Ward
In respective wings of a cross, the hospital has four patient wards. One ward each for Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Surgery and General Medicine. The Medicine Ward is the only one that has not been renovated yet. When ACWR assumed management of the hospital in 2011, the Medicine Ward was in the best physical condition so the other wards received renovations first. This past week, demolition started in the Medicine Ward. Parts of this ward will be reconfigured to add some isolation rooms as well as two private rooms. While the demo can be quite noisy, it always seems to me that the masons enjoy knocking down walls. I'm not sure if it is just fun for boys to knock things down or if they know that they will have work with the rebuilding during the next few weeks. The Haitian Masons will do the concrete work and an upcoming work team will do the finish work such as painting, electrical, flooring, etc...
Staff Appreciation
Every few months, we do a staff appreciation gift with payroll. A few months ago, the kids and I made monster cookies and distributed cookies and cold Coca-Cola. At the end of October, Selah and I gave each staff member a hygiene kit. These kits were assembled at VBS in Bern this past summer. Our children helped assemble them when we were home and they attended VBS and it was fun for Selah to help distribute them. Currently, I am baking up pans of cinnamon rolls and we plans to give rolls and juice with the payroll that is distributed in the morning on December 24th.
Medical Teams
Two medical teams have visited the hospital in recent weeks. In November, while we were in the USA for the HL Auction, two ladies came to do nursing education. Arthur Greenback was also planning to travel with these ladies and serve at the hospital for that week. A few weeks before the scheduled trip, Arthur became very ill and passed away suddenly from complications related to his illness. He was a young man (in his 20s) and he will be missed greatly. Arthur had participated in past medical teams at HL and his contributions here were greatly appreciated. It is evident that the nursing staff held a special place in his heart; he had ink pens made for them and was planning to distribute them to the staff. The pens were given and in addition, Arthur's family gave each of the nurses a stethoscope in memory of Arthur. Below are pictures of the nurses receiving the new stethoscopes.
Some nursing education!
This past week, a dental team came from Rockville, CT for a dental clinic. We have two dental clinics scheduled each year and it is exciting to see that people, who would not have access to preventative care, are getting their teeth cleaned on a regular basis. The team also does a large number of extractions.
I mentioned earlier that the census in the hospital has been increasing and it is worth noting that at one point in November there were 104 patients in the hospital. The capacity is currently 106. This is the first time since management of the hospital was assumed by ACWR that we have had this many patients at one time. On the day, that the number of patients peaked at 104, there were 8 newborn babies in the Obstetrics Ward. Here is a photo of the full basinets!
In closing this post, I want to share a photo of Christony Rigaud. He is the son of Suzette, who cooks 3 days a week in our home.
On days when Suzette is working and her husband is unable to watch Christony, she will bring him to work with her and I get my baby fix. As you can see, he is a cutie. He is also quite big for his age. He is 4 months old, but is already wearing 9 month old baby clothes. He is healthy and happy and thriving!
When I was holding him one day this past week, I reflected that this beautiful little baby might not be alive if Hospital Lumiere had closed 5 years ago. As many of you may recall, when Suzette was at about 24 weeks gestation, she started to dilate. She saw Dr. Mario, the OB/GYN doctor at the the hospital who immediately ordered bed rest. He also sutured her cervix. Suzette spent the next five months in the hospital OB ward on bed rest. In Haiti, bed rest usually means you stay in the hospital. Since most Haitian women do not have running water or electricity in their homes, their normal daily activity requires a lot of heavy physical work. It was a long wait for this little guy. While it was emotionally hard to be in the hospital for so long, especially with a 3 year old daughter at home, Suzette kept a positive attitude and was thankful for a good doctor and a nice hospital. She was able to carry the baby to the full term of her pregnancy. Praise God that mothers have a place to go and options with difficult pregnancies!!
