Hospital Update

The following is a hospital update from Dr. Harvey. To read the complete newsletter visit Congo Harveys.

Things have been busy at the hospital. There is a new armed conflict going on northeast of Impfondo in the Equateur Region of neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. About 26,000 refugees have crossed to our side of the Oubangui River in the past month or so. At Pioneer Christian Hospital we have received 3 waves of wounded refugees, injured in the chaotic violence. We are taking care of 7 patients (ages 11 to 57) with gunshot wounds, and 4 with serious machete wounds. All have had one or two surgeries, and most need more to reattach tendons and further mend broken bones. Our hospital is now a stop on the humanitarian assistance/UN/government/media circuit as a number of delegations have come through to assess the situation. The Congo-Brazzaville & Congo-Kinshasa governments have responded quickly and effectively to the needs that we have presented, and we and our patients are very grateful.

Our need for nurses is even more critical than ever! It's really good to have 3 doctors on full-time staff now, but we don't have nearly enough nurses to carry out the doctors' orders. We hope to start a nursing school in January, which should help in the future, but we need nurses now! Often we have only 1 nurse on duty for 25-35 inpatients! This is unacceptable. Please pray for God to provide 4 RN's, 2 physician's assistants or nurse practitioners, and 4 LPN's as soon as possible.