Do read World Magazine's article.
We met Dr. Bransford when we visited Mary in Kijabe.
Showing posts with label Dr. Bransford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Bransford. Show all posts
Friday, December 03, 2010
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Mary Visits the Cure International Hospital in Uganda
Yesterday we spoke on the phone with Mary about her visit to the children's hospital in Mbale, about an hour's drive from where she is staying this summer near Jinja. (She and another med student from Rochester are doing a malaria study near Jinja with an organization called Soft Power Health.)
The Mbale hospital is run by Cure International. According to the website:
The CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda (CCHU) in Mbale Uganda, is a 30 bed teaching hospital that specializes in treating the neurosurgical needs of children with an emphasis on hydrocephalus, neural tube defects, spina bifida, epilepsy and brain tumors. CCHU also maintains a large outpatient clinic and operates monthly mobile clinics in remote regions. CCHU was opened in 2000 and serves children with physical disabilities regardless of their ethnic background, religious affiliation or ability to pay.
CCHU serves approximately 7,000 children each year with a wide range of medical services. Approximately 900 surgeries are performed each year. The hospital has 30 in-patient beds and 10 intensive care beds and maintains a busy out-patient clinic. The hospital operates mobile medical clinics that find hundreds of children who are suffering from disabilities in remote areas and whenever possible, transports the children back to the hospital for care.
I'm looking forward to a write-up from Mary on her visit, but she doesn't have ready access to the Internet to do so on her blog. So for now I will do my best to pass on what she told us.
She knew about Cure International because the organization has a hospital in Kjabe, next to the AIM hospital. She visited those hospitals during her two years teaching at RVA, taking students there each week to visit the patients. When she arrived in Uganda in June, she asked Sarah, one of her missionary friends who lives in Kampala, whether Cure has a hospital in Uganda, and Sarah told her about the one in Mbale. Mary emailed the director to ask whether she and her friend from med school might be able to visit. She added that she had been diagnosed with hydrocephalus as a child and has a Ventriculoperitoneal shunt ("VP shunt").
The director responded immediately, issued an invitation, and asked Mary if she would talk to the mothers of the little patients there about her diagnosis and treatment, because he knew it would be a great encouragement. (This is the same reaction Dr. Bransford and his staff had at the AIM Kjabi hospital, when they learned that Mary is a VP shunt veteran.) So yesterday, Mary and her friend made the trip to Mbale.
She said that the hospital is a fine facility, unusually squared-away, with up to date equipment, clean and well-staffed. Mary said that CURE is definitely a worthy place for contributions.
She met one of the neurosurgeons who was just getting ready for surgery, and he invited her and her friend to scrub and watch. (Later, one of the staff said that this surgeon never allowed visiting med students to watch, so he was apparently pretty impressed with Mary.) He warned her that she might find the surgery a little uncomfortable to view, but Mary said she would have no problem with it, and she didn't.
The surgery involved a two-month old hydrocephalic baby, which the doctor said was old for the VP shunt procedure. The operating room was well equipped, even to the CT scanning apparatus that guided the surgery. (Mary said that ours is a great country, that its people would supply a machine like that to a hospital in a little town in Uganda.) Before the surgery commenced, the surgeon and the other operating team members prayed together. (We might pray for that baby too, even now.)
After the surgery, Mary, through a translator, spoke to a group of mothers that the hospital staff had gathered for her, and the staff made a video of her talk to show other mothers later.
(The photo is of Ian.)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Dr. Bransford at Kijabe Hospital
I'm on the email list for Make Way Partners. I hear from its president Kimberly Smith who is in the Sudan doing a wonderful work. Below is the text of a recent email from her. It refers to Dr. Bransford and the hospital at Kijabi where RVA is also located. Note that Kimberly refers to Mary the Dinka woman, whom we met on our visit to the hospital in December of 2006.
September 8th, 2008
Dear Fellow Missioners,
One thing is for sure, life is never dull here in Sudan. We have tried to treat Kevin's malaria here at our medical clinic, but we have not been able to get him to a satisfactory condition. We made arrangements to medi-vac him to Kenya today. We praise God for our partnership with Dr. Dick Bransford of Bethany Kids at Kijabi hospital (the same doctor who saved Mary two years ago)! Dr. Bransford agreed to receive Kevin and care for him in his hospital in the beautiful Rift Valley. This is a double blessing because not only will Kevin receive excellent medical care, but it is also a beautiful sanctuary for restoration for both Kevin and Shalene.
As only God can do, another miracle came from all of this. Just 30 minutes before the medical flight was to arrive, a policeman came to the compound to tell us there was a woman who was going to throw her baby into the river. Apparently, her baby was born without an anus. The baby's name is Arek. Every time the child defecates, it is passes through her urinary tract. It is an absolute miracle that the infant has not already died of infection. The mother, Abet, had brought the baby to our medical clinic, but because we still do not have the funds for a sterile surgical unit, there was nothing our staff could do.
The mother and grandmother had lost all hope. The community was urging them to just throw the baby in the river for it was not good to waste food on her. The mother had finally succumbed to discouragement and was going to throw Arek into the river. Baby Elijah's father happened to be chatting with some police officers when he heard what was happening. He told them, “The Christians who saved my baby, will save this baby, too.” So the policeman came to us.
Quickly, I called Dr. Bransford, once again pleading for help. He readily agreed; he is always so excited to help the children! He and his wife Mimi have been faithful missionaries here for more than 30 years.
We ran to Abet to make sure she did not throw Arek into the river. She agreed to go to Kenya on our flight that was due to arrive in 15 minutes! Abet had never even been inside a vehicle, much less an airplane. She has never left her small village nor does she speak any language but her native tongue, Dinka. The only clothes she had was the one torn and dirty nightgown which she donned. We quickly ran her through the market where we bought a small suitcase and filled it with clothes and food for her and baby Arek.
Only God can reveal a dying baby, work out international travel (without documentation, visas, ID, or any kind of paperwork), a committed doctor to receive them, and provide clothes for travel, not to speak of changing a mother's heart, all in 30 minutes!
Please pray for Kevin's continued healing, for Baby Arek’s surgery to go well, and for the heart of Abet to be encouraged in Christ. I am sure she will receive much love and knowledge of Christ while she is with Dr. Bransford!
All in a day in Nyamlel!
k
Kimberly Smith
President
Make Way Partners
PO BOX 26367
Birmingham, AL 35260
U.S.A.
Phone: 205.240.8597
Fax: 205.822.8091
www.makewaypartners.org
September 8th, 2008
Dear Fellow Missioners,
One thing is for sure, life is never dull here in Sudan. We have tried to treat Kevin's malaria here at our medical clinic, but we have not been able to get him to a satisfactory condition. We made arrangements to medi-vac him to Kenya today. We praise God for our partnership with Dr. Dick Bransford of Bethany Kids at Kijabi hospital (the same doctor who saved Mary two years ago)! Dr. Bransford agreed to receive Kevin and care for him in his hospital in the beautiful Rift Valley. This is a double blessing because not only will Kevin receive excellent medical care, but it is also a beautiful sanctuary for restoration for both Kevin and Shalene.
As only God can do, another miracle came from all of this. Just 30 minutes before the medical flight was to arrive, a policeman came to the compound to tell us there was a woman who was going to throw her baby into the river. Apparently, her baby was born without an anus. The baby's name is Arek. Every time the child defecates, it is passes through her urinary tract. It is an absolute miracle that the infant has not already died of infection. The mother, Abet, had brought the baby to our medical clinic, but because we still do not have the funds for a sterile surgical unit, there was nothing our staff could do.
The mother and grandmother had lost all hope. The community was urging them to just throw the baby in the river for it was not good to waste food on her. The mother had finally succumbed to discouragement and was going to throw Arek into the river. Baby Elijah's father happened to be chatting with some police officers when he heard what was happening. He told them, “The Christians who saved my baby, will save this baby, too.” So the policeman came to us.
Quickly, I called Dr. Bransford, once again pleading for help. He readily agreed; he is always so excited to help the children! He and his wife Mimi have been faithful missionaries here for more than 30 years.
We ran to Abet to make sure she did not throw Arek into the river. She agreed to go to Kenya on our flight that was due to arrive in 15 minutes! Abet had never even been inside a vehicle, much less an airplane. She has never left her small village nor does she speak any language but her native tongue, Dinka. The only clothes she had was the one torn and dirty nightgown which she donned. We quickly ran her through the market where we bought a small suitcase and filled it with clothes and food for her and baby Arek.
Only God can reveal a dying baby, work out international travel (without documentation, visas, ID, or any kind of paperwork), a committed doctor to receive them, and provide clothes for travel, not to speak of changing a mother's heart, all in 30 minutes!
Please pray for Kevin's continued healing, for Baby Arek’s surgery to go well, and for the heart of Abet to be encouraged in Christ. I am sure she will receive much love and knowledge of Christ while she is with Dr. Bransford!
All in a day in Nyamlel!
k
Kimberly Smith
President
Make Way Partners
PO BOX 26367
Birmingham, AL 35260
U.S.A.
Phone: 205.240.8597
Fax: 205.822.8091
www.makewaypartners.org
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Hospital Visit. This afternoon we met the RVA assistant superintendent Mark Buhler and his daughter April (10th grade) and walked down the hill to the AIC hospital, to visit children in the pediatric wards, including one with children who have spinal bifida or hydrocephalous or (as is often the case) both. Mark told us that there is apparently a greater incidence of this problem among children in Kenya, and it may be related to a lack of folic acid in the diet. In any event, children born with these birth defects and the mothers who bore them are often rejected by their husbands and communities.
We first visited the ward with the children without these birth defects. None of them was alone: a parent, in most cases the mother, was with them, usually lying in the bed with them. The children were all little children. Mary had asked us to bring over some bottles of bubbles, the kind with the wand which you dip into the solution and blow on. So she would blow bubbles for the children and then hold the wand for them to blow, and that simple thing cheered up both the children and the mothers.
Among the most heartbreaking was a mother and child from one of the Somali refugee camps. (There are two such camps in Kenya, one with 90,000 people and one with 130,000 people.) The little child had somehow rolled into a campfire. Its feet had burned off and after coming to the hospital, one of its legs had to be amputated. There were no private rooms in the ward but for the one that this baby and her mother occupied. The physicians suggested we not go into the room, and we didn't. But I could hear the baby crying. We were talking a bit outside the door to that room, and the mother opened the door and stood there and we said hello and she greeted us. She was slight, small young woman, probably not even twenty. I felt so sorry for her and her baby. April had to go outside the ward for a few minutes to collect herself.
Inside this ward was a refugee from Darfur. She had burns as well and was there, I think, because they were short of beds in the adult section. Mark told us that her village in Darfur had been raided by the Janjaweed (?), the Muslims who are making war on the Christians there. The village was destroyed, she was separated from her husband, and, along with her seven children, terribly abused and taken north into slavery. She was finally sold as a second wife to a Muslim man. Encouraged by the man's first wife, she ran away, sending ahead her five oldest children. But she didn't get far with her two little ones, when the man came after her on horseback, firing at her and the children. But instead of killing them that way, he set fire to the bush in which they were hiding. The little children were killed and she was terribly burned. Meanwhile, the older five children had reached a place where there were sympathetic people, and they got someone to come back looking for their mother and little siblings. They found the mother and carried her away from that place. Her burns were not treated well, and the scarring on her arms caused them to be stuck together, the forearm of each to the bicep area, although she had the use of her hands. She supported herself and children weaving little crosses from palm leaves in a sort of micro-industry project. Some time elapsed and she heard of the AIC hospital here in Kijabe, and recently she underwent operations at the hospital to "unstick" her arms. Mark said that when last he saw her she was in a great deal of pain, but today she seemed comfortable, and we were able to speak with her a little bit and to pray with her. Her name is Mary.
Mark told us that Mary told him that she never denied Christ through all of this, despite being urged to worship Allah by her captors. She is concerned, however, about her children, the five older ones, because they were in the hands of the Muslims long enough for the indoctrination of the children to begin in earnest, and she is not sure that they will accept Christ. However, she is hopeful. If you have space on your prayer list tonight, you might put those five children on it.
Then we went to the second ward, where the spinal bifida/hydrocephalic babies are treated. Before we went there, we ran into the senior physician, for whom that ward is especially his responsibility. His name is Richard Bransford, MD, and the ward has a name of its own, Bethany Kids, and its own support organization, www.brri.ca. He is an older man, probably in his mid to late sixties, and has been there for thirty years.
We mentioned that our Mary had been diagnosed hydrocephalic and had a shunt. He became intensely interested (not that he was disinterested during our conversation up till then), and Mary had him feel her shunt, which he did, and then he called over a nurse and introduced her to Mary and the rest of us, and had the nurse feel Mary's shunt. He told us he would very much like Mary to meet the mothers of the children who had to have such shunts, because mothers are often despondent over the outlook for their babies, and that Mary would give them hope. Mary said she would be glad to help with this.
After that we went over to Dr. Bransford's ward and met the mothers and children there (and one father!). Mary told one of the mothers that she had a shunt and had the mother feel the bump on her head . She showed the mother the scar on her abdomen through which the drainage tube had been inserted. The mother simply lit up in amazement, and two others who were watching Mary lit up as well.
We first visited the ward with the children without these birth defects. None of them was alone: a parent, in most cases the mother, was with them, usually lying in the bed with them. The children were all little children. Mary had asked us to bring over some bottles of bubbles, the kind with the wand which you dip into the solution and blow on. So she would blow bubbles for the children and then hold the wand for them to blow, and that simple thing cheered up both the children and the mothers.
Among the most heartbreaking was a mother and child from one of the Somali refugee camps. (There are two such camps in Kenya, one with 90,000 people and one with 130,000 people.) The little child had somehow rolled into a campfire. Its feet had burned off and after coming to the hospital, one of its legs had to be amputated. There were no private rooms in the ward but for the one that this baby and her mother occupied. The physicians suggested we not go into the room, and we didn't. But I could hear the baby crying. We were talking a bit outside the door to that room, and the mother opened the door and stood there and we said hello and she greeted us. She was slight, small young woman, probably not even twenty. I felt so sorry for her and her baby. April had to go outside the ward for a few minutes to collect herself.
Inside this ward was a refugee from Darfur. She had burns as well and was there, I think, because they were short of beds in the adult section. Mark told us that her village in Darfur had been raided by the Janjaweed (?), the Muslims who are making war on the Christians there. The village was destroyed, she was separated from her husband, and, along with her seven children, terribly abused and taken north into slavery. She was finally sold as a second wife to a Muslim man. Encouraged by the man's first wife, she ran away, sending ahead her five oldest children. But she didn't get far with her two little ones, when the man came after her on horseback, firing at her and the children. But instead of killing them that way, he set fire to the bush in which they were hiding. The little children were killed and she was terribly burned. Meanwhile, the older five children had reached a place where there were sympathetic people, and they got someone to come back looking for their mother and little siblings. They found the mother and carried her away from that place. Her burns were not treated well, and the scarring on her arms caused them to be stuck together, the forearm of each to the bicep area, although she had the use of her hands. She supported herself and children weaving little crosses from palm leaves in a sort of micro-industry project. Some time elapsed and she heard of the AIC hospital here in Kijabe, and recently she underwent operations at the hospital to "unstick" her arms. Mark said that when last he saw her she was in a great deal of pain, but today she seemed comfortable, and we were able to speak with her a little bit and to pray with her. Her name is Mary.
Mark told us that Mary told him that she never denied Christ through all of this, despite being urged to worship Allah by her captors. She is concerned, however, about her children, the five older ones, because they were in the hands of the Muslims long enough for the indoctrination of the children to begin in earnest, and she is not sure that they will accept Christ. However, she is hopeful. If you have space on your prayer list tonight, you might put those five children on it.
Then we went to the second ward, where the spinal bifida/hydrocephalic babies are treated. Before we went there, we ran into the senior physician, for whom that ward is especially his responsibility. His name is Richard Bransford, MD, and the ward has a name of its own, Bethany Kids, and its own support organization, www.brri.ca. He is an older man, probably in his mid to late sixties, and has been there for thirty years.
We mentioned that our Mary had been diagnosed hydrocephalic and had a shunt. He became intensely interested (not that he was disinterested during our conversation up till then), and Mary had him feel her shunt, which he did, and then he called over a nurse and introduced her to Mary and the rest of us, and had the nurse feel Mary's shunt. He told us he would very much like Mary to meet the mothers of the children who had to have such shunts, because mothers are often despondent over the outlook for their babies, and that Mary would give them hope. Mary said she would be glad to help with this.
After that we went over to Dr. Bransford's ward and met the mothers and children there (and one father!). Mary told one of the mothers that she had a shunt and had the mother feel the bump on her head . She showed the mother the scar on her abdomen through which the drainage tube had been inserted. The mother simply lit up in amazement, and two others who were watching Mary lit up as well.
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