Yesterday, I was able to slip out of surgeries for a little while to visit Jessica at her infant feeding clinic. It was such a privilege to see her in her own work environment!
The infant feeding clinic is in a tent outside on the dock,
where the outpatient visits take place.
Most of the babies in Jess' feeding program have cleft lips and/or palates. They are usually underweight because of feeding problems, so the babies are supplemented with formula provided by Mercy Ships to get them up to weight for surgery.
A very happy mama, who is thrilled her baby has gained enough
weight to get his cleft lip fixed next week!
Weighing the fat baby! :)
Checking the babies for any signs of infection that may delay surgery.
Isn't he the cutest thing!!! Such a beautiful baby!
He is still super tiny for his age, but may have been premature at birth. He has gained enough weight, so he will also get his cleft lip fixed next week. His cleft palate will have to wait for another time, because he is still too small to fix that. Hopefully, the family will be able to get surgical care another time either with the ship or another non-profit.
Even if the family had the money to pay for the surgery, there usually isn't a surgeon in the country who is trained to do the surgery. Even then, the surgeons don't always have the supplies or equipment to do the surgery. We have surgeons from Togo on the ship with us training with the Western Surgeons. They are so impressed to see the amount of supplies we have on the ship. One surgeon said he would not sometimes be able to preform life-saving surgery because he does not have basic surgical supplies or even the ability to give blood. Healthcare is not accessible here in West Africa, like it is at home.
We in the States take so much of our medical care for granted. You are certainly seeing first hand how blessed we are in our own hospitals to have all of the equipment and supplies that we need to function. In my 25 years of working in a hospital, I have never been short of supplies unless it was due to someone's negligence in ordering on time. And even then, we could just call another local hospital to "borrow" whatever we needed until our shipment came in.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will remember forever those who you all were able to help there in Togo. May the Lord bless you all for giving of your time and talents to help the people of Togo.