Baby Medivac

 Today's post comes from Eric & Wendy Hofman, colleagues on our team at Bongolo Hospital. Eric serves in accounting and bookkeeping for the mission and hospital and Wendy is director of the Eye Clinic and current Medical Director of the hospital.

This is a little premature baby who was born nearby at 33 weeks' gestation and referred to Bongolo Hospital because of a developmental malformation called laparoschisis, where her intestines were actually coming out through a rare defect in her belly wall.  (Don't worry, these pictures don't show that!)

She was immediately operated on by our teammates at Bongolo to prepare her for transport the next day to our capital city of Libreville, 350 milesaway, where she would receive a definitive operation.  

We used the poor fund (supplied by many of you!) to pay for her hospitalization and surgery here at Bongolo.  And then Wendy discovered that God had arranged for the destination hospital in Libreville to be having a rare campaign of free pediatric surgeries starting just that day for a month.  A donor then offered to cover the costs for an emergency flight to Libreville on our little mission airplane by our pilot with 12 hours' notice.  

Our neonatal physician accompanied the baby and her mother on the flight and monitored her battery-operated IV pump and excellent oxygenation levels, which were supported by having the plane fly at a lower altitude.

With the aid of local Gabonese medical contacts, Wendy arranged for the free ambulance to pick them up at the Libreville airport, and for the pediatric physician to be ready to receive them at the hospital.

We thank the Lord for all His help.  Only by His hand might something like
this be possible for a poor mother and baby in the middle of the jungles of
Africa.  Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, "Thus says the Lord: 'Let not the wise man
boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the
rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he
understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight',
declares the Lord."  We delighted too, in seeing His hand at work through so many of Christ's body in this remote place.

Please consider supporting the needs of the Bongolo Hospital. Click on the link to find out how: https://www.bongolohospital.org/causes/