Projects-Chapter 1

Last Sabbath, April 1, marked the one year anniversary for Bekki and I to be in Sierra Leone. The experience here has been very different than our experience in Tchad, but one thing hasn’t changed, God’s providence. As we reflect over all that God has done at the Adventist Health System in Sierra Leone we are humbled and privileged to be a small part of it. This is the first in a multi part series detailing how God has blessed in the last year.

The Strategic Plan Team from April, 2016

In April of last year we held a two day strategic planning meeting. We came out of it with a bold, and to many minds, ridiculous, vision and plan. And I of course was one of those who thought, “It can’t be done,” at least not anytime soon. Well, I thought I would just let you know what has happened to that Strategic Plan and how God apparently views it. As all that I am going to tell you is His doing, not ours.

Doing our SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis led by Master of Public Health, Erin Acosta

OR Upgrade

You may recall that when we arrived I found Dr. Koroma doing amazing operations under very adverse conditions. Inadequate light, no cautery, no suction, an OR table that was frozen in one position, an untrained anesthetist who did not know the most basic airway maneuvers, just to name a few. Oh yea, a super tiny table-top dental autoclave that barely worked, and four other autoclaves that did not work at all. The OR area was packed with outdated (I mean 25 years outdated) items, including suture, and other materials. The minor room was home to four nonworking typewriters, and most rooms were so full of junk it was difficult to open the door.

Our very empty and bleak OR.

After many sweaty hours we were able to get the usable material separated from the unusable, the good from the bad if you will. (And we got the typewriters cleared out.) AHI, Brothers Brother Foundation and Healey Foundation helped us get a new OR table (that works!!!), suction and cautery.

Remy with the autoclave he repaired for us.

Remy Hirschy from Geneva got one of the other autoclaves working for us. Then a grant from the Winifred Stevens Foundation came through allowing us to put in windows that blocked the dust from coming inside, do some badly needed repairs, and I just ordered a new full sized steam autoclave, made specifically for use in mission hospitals, and a generator that will allow us to do surgery after hours.

The moving crew with the new OR Table.

And, last, but not least, Emanuel Soffa completed his anesthesia training course and is now serving as our permanent anesthetist. To help round out his education, Dr. Tim Mercer, Anesthesiologist, LLUSOM Class of ’85 (a great class) came over with his wife Connie, who is a PACU nurse, and did more education with him and set up a PACU protocol for our nurses. We had another team of CRNA’s from Asheville, NC led by Mason McDowell, of Bere Hospital fame, come in March to continue that training and the training of our nursing staff.

Team Tarheel (from Ashville, North Carolina) working with Soffa on spinal technique.

Stores

Bekki was overwhelmed when she was given the monumental task of organizing and inventorying the stores, or warehouse. It is a 40 X 48 foot structure made of termite eaten studs and tarpaulin, it is stuffed with supplies. Again, some useful, much of it not useful. Much of it from Ebola days. We have enough Ebola PPE (personal protective equipment) to last for 20 years.

The state of the stores (central supply), before Bekki took over.

But, in her usual quiet, organized way she started the job. She got several young men who came to be known as Mrs. Scott’s guys to help her as they sorted, cleaned and discarded. Doug Abbot, a nurse from California, came to us for a year, and he has cheerfully taken on the role as her assistant (read taken over the job). He has taken over the inventory process, and does his best to make sure we don’t run out of supplies. Buford SDA Church near Atlanta Georgia helped us with funds to convert an unused area into a mini-warehouse that we climate controlled to preserve the material.

Now in her air conditioned office, Bekki is surrounded by neatly stacked and organized supplies.

So now we have some idea of what we have, and things that have been donated are being used before they outdate, or go bad. Our next goal is to take the three 40 foot containers we have and use them as the walls of a permanent 40X48 warehouse, part of which will be climate controlled. We can then return the current storage space to it’s intended purpose of labor and delivery.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

For more frequent, up to the minute short updates please follow us on Instagram or on Facebook, we are Scott N Bekki Gardner.

For those of you who are new to our blog please look around at the other pages, the “About” page tells a bit of who we are and our background, the “Definitions” page explains some terms that are used that some of you may not be familiar with, such as GC or AHI. The “Timeline” gives an idea of where we will be throughout the year, and the “Video” page has a video Bekki made of Koza Hospital as well as the videos she has made of Moundou, and now we are adding videos of Sierra Leone. Watch a real Ebola survivor tell his story. Watch our community health officer explain why the staff agreed to work in the Ebola Red Zone even after they lost 2 staff members to Ebola. There is also the Surgical Pictures Page, but be forewarned, it has some very graphic pictures, so if you don’t like blood and guts, stay away from that page. On the Projects and Donations pages you can find the projects we are working on and how to donate to the project that touches your heart. Finally, if you like our blog and want to receive each new post directly to your e-mail, please sign up with your e-mail in the subscribe box. It doesn’t cost anything, there is no commitment, it just makes it easier to follow us.

We welcome volunteers.

-Scott Gardner