| Auchi Medical Mission - 2008 |
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Etsako West Local Area Medical Mission - Auchi,
2008 Auchi Medical Mission Total consultations at Clinics 2438 4388*
Summary: This is our second outreach to this site. Planning for 2008 medical mission to Nigeria started immediately following the 2007 mission trip because of the enthusiastic support of the local community members and our positive experience. This year, we expanded the outreach to Etsako W. Local Area (LGA). LGA consist of about 40 villages and Auchi is its administrative headquarters After months of telephone calls, text messages, and emails, I was able to establish a partnership through Dr. Joseph Kigbu with the Eggon Medical Forum, a not-for-profit medical volunteer organization based in Jos. Again, raising sufficient funds for this outreach was challenging but by God’s grace, Christ Church Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral women approved grants for us that enabled payment of the Eggon Medical Forum traveling expenses for 33 volunteers and on-site medical supplies. Mr. Matthias Ahonsi was the contact person for LGA; I was assured that LGA would pick up the bill for hotel accommodations and feeding for more than 40 volunteers. I applied to Alcon for a products grant and we received a generous supply of eye care products, enough for two outreaches from Alcon. Through WorldinNeed, we were given access to Kingsway charities’ inventories to shop for pharmaceutics at no cost to us.
Additionally, we received a large shipment of pharmaceutics from Heart to Heart at a greatly reduced cost. We are so grateful for all our sponsors, especially to individual donors not mentioned here. Our flight to Nigeria was good with no delay. Upon arrival at Abuja on May 25th, we encountered our first problem; one of the carry-on luggage and one bag of the medical supplies were missing. We spent over 90 minutes completing paper work to allow us to pick them up when found; there is no airline delivery service in Nigeria. Second problem, the customs had a problem with our medical supplies because we did not get pre-approval to bring them into the country. A godly man intervened and we were allowed to keep our medical supplies. Dr. Lecky and my cousin, Yakubu Musa (both indigenes of Auchi) arranged for our transportation from the airport and overnight hotel accommodation. The hotel was quite comfortable and we had a restful night before continuing our journey to Auchi the following day. Dr. Lecky graciously offered us the use of his vehicle and the driver, with this, we felt safe because, riding with the medical supplies will draw unwanted attention to us. We arrived at Auchi late on May 26th. I made hotel reservation and confirmed prior to leaving the US but we found that the hotel was not ready. Dr. Deka Oragunye, a resident doctor from New York was to meet us at the hotel but luckily, she called to let me know that she will join us the following day. We left and stayed at my house until the volunteers from Jos led by Dr. Joseph Kigbu arrived on Sunday, the 27th. Nneka and I spent Saturday and Sunday recruiting for local volunteers and setting up for the upcoming outreach. Led by Mrs. Amiebenome and Alhaji S. Musa, the local screening team from the 2007 mission was on hand to help and we were lucky to have Hajia Ikperua to volunteer her staff of 19 to help at the eye clinic. Dr. Nana Momoh (Ophthalmologist) coordinated recruitment of resident doctors from University of Benin teaching Hospital to assist in consultation; her efforts boosted the number of consultations of eye care patients. There were 72 volunteers and other auxiliary personnel participated in this medical mission. To reduce over crowding, I wanted to use two sites for the outreach and successful recruitment of these many volunteers made it possible. On Sunday Evening, we conducted volunteers’ orientation except for the UBTH volunteers, they arrived on Monday afternoon. On our first clinic day, we arrived at General Hospital in the morning to find a long line of patients already waiting. We completed set-up and explained logistics to patients and started consultation at 11AM. Event was well publicized, weekly announcements a month prior to our visit in all the villages within the local government area. Thereafter, the medical volunteers attended to people from 8 AM to 6PM and sometimes longer at the pharmacy. I have observed that the Pharmacy is always the limiting step on both mission trips. Daily Activities The priority this year was providing educational sessions to diabetic and hypertensive patients. There were three components to these sessions, information on common drugs used, diet modification, and exercise. The sessions went really well using chalk board and hand written cards. The patients’ participation and contribution was good. On diet modification, they helped in providing names of local staples/ingredients to be incorporated in daily meal plans. Working together, we had a grouping list of what is good, moderate and bad for Diabetes and hypertensive patients. One of the local community members volunteered to pull my notes and cards together and make posters for their monthly screening program. I am so excited and proud of what this team has achieved since my last visit. The team is growing strong with an addition of two medical doctors and they have decided to call the team “Wecare missions”. They are currently focused on five villages and would like to extend their free medical screening services to additional villages. We had most of the excitement on Wednesday and Thursday both good and bad. Over at the eye clinic, Nneka was conducting visual acuity test when she observed a woman in the crowd dragging three children with her. Nneka brought the children in and tested them because the woman kept saying the children can’t see. Nneka confirmed their condition and asked me to make sure they were treated. The Ophthalmologist diagnosed them with congenital polar cataract. He performed cataract extraction on one eye each for the three children. The following day, when the bandages were removed, we all held our breath until the oldest of them started jumping and clamping his handing saying “I can see now, I can now go to school”. All three regained sight in the operated eye, and we promised that by the grace of God, we will be back next year for the second eye. On Thursday morning we were alerted to a twin pregnancy with complications. The woman was about three weeks over due and couldn’t feel the babies’ movement. There were no attending physicians at the clinic, luckily, Dr. Joseph Kigbu is an Ob/Gyn, and he calmed the woman down and asked us to assist with an emergency delivery. He delivered the babies, a girl first followed by a boy; it took awhile to get them to cry and stabilized. I am happy to say that mom and babies were doing great and they nick named the babies Fatima and Joseph. The widow from 2007 medical mission returned to the clinic to have cataract surgery on her second eye. She announced to everyone that she walked there herself and was not using a cane nor led by the hand by anyone. To all who will listen, she gave her testimony of how through the volunteers God gave back her sight. I saw her after surgery on her second eye; I was overwhelmed by her thankful spirit. On a sad note, a young man was rushed to the hospital, carried on a stretcher by friends; according to them he was riding a motorcycle and collided with a truck. They called me to the scene to ask the volunteer medical team to take care of him because there were no attending physicians at the hospital. We were not set up for such emergency care and couldn’t help him. We suggested they take him to the nearest facility; the problem was that the ambulance could not take him because the driver wanted someone to give him money to buy fuel because the tank was empty. I gave the driver money since the victim’s family members were not around. Unfortunately, I was told the young man was pronounced dead on arrival at the facility he was taken to. By Thursday, we were out of several eye care products including eye glasses because I based my requests on 2007 statistics, I purchased some eye drops locally and many of the patients were not happy with this because they did not trust the purity/efficacy of the local drugs compared to the ones we brought from US. On Friday, our last day, we continued to see patients until 7:30 PM; we got to the hotel at 8:30 PM. We had planned a reception that night but there was no electricity or food at the hotel. We finally had dinner at about 11:30 PM and continue with our reception/recognition party hosted by LGA vice chairman and secretary who were very apologetic over the situation.
We left Auchi on Sunday, May 4th and arrived in Indianapolis May 6th. In summary, we were successful in recruiting dedicated volunteers for the 2008 medical outreach; we significantly exceeded our 2007 record as indicated by attached statistics. We attended to almost 4400 patients compared to 2400 in 2007. Our relationship with the community is growing and we have laid foundation for a sustainable health care provision for the poor and disadvantaged. We are looking forward to growing our new partnership with the Eggon medical forum, UBTH, and LGA. I am hoping and praying that others will take this unique opportunity offered by the Mercy Foundation to be God’s hands and feet in helping the poor and disadvantaged around the world. I am especially grateful to all our sponsors and supporters for giving me and my daughter this opportunity to give back to the Nigerian community that raised me. According to Nneka, “It is a life changing experience.” I am so blessed and so grateful to God for using us to bring healing and restoration to the people of Etsako West local Area. Please know that you are being prayed for and many people are thankful for your generosity. I hope you feel and experience the prayers of the people as they ask God to keep and bless you in all your undertakings. With your help, I would like to go back again.
Respectfully submitted, |
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