2016 Health Team

Together, we have done it. Today we completed our final day of providing health services to the Carpenter area. It was wonderful for all 61 of us and all our Ghanaian volunteers to be together on the compound for two days. With no need to travel, our clinics ran an extra 2-3 hours, allowing us to serve the massive crowds. Patience, our chef extraordinaire, ensured the 30-cup coffee perk was brewing all day long to keep us going! Having washrooms and running water was a luxury!

Together, we have extended compassion to Northern Ghana. When we met a young 5 year-old boy with a congenitally small stump for a left leg in our clinic four days ago we felt helpless. Our team had compassion for him and we discussed what could be done to improve his quality of life. A referral was made using our team funds to a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon 10 hours away in Accra where we hoped and prayed a prosthetic limb might be available. We were doubtful. Yesterday, our little lame friend ran into the clinic to greet us with a new prosthesis. This boy, who had never walked on two legs was now running and running and running all over our clinic. He was free.

Yesterday, a young teenager with a very serious complication from a surgery that had gone wrong in Ghana arrived. She was being ostracized from her community. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do to help her. A while later I saw her walking with Ernestina our Ghanaian medical assistant who has been by our team’s side since 2007. Ernestina had taken the child to her own room, cleaned her up, removed her rags and gave her one of her very own dresses to wear. That child was so proud to be wearing a beautiful dress and, for that moment, her suffering was forgotten. Dr. Elizabeth took up a collection from our team so that Ernestina could purchase a new dress.

Together, we have extended care to Northern Ghana. We had the privilege of being joined all week by Moses, a fourth year medical student from Ghana. Today we snuck away from our consulting table and I walked him through our entire clinic and witnessed, through Moses’ eyes, the excellence with which every team member was caring for every patient side by side with their Ghanaian translator. We moved through nursing triage with Sandra, Val and Leslie; registration with Emily, research station; paediatric weight and temperature station with Dale and Jessica; to our lab with Tracey, Lisa and Joan and Lissa. We then toured the physician consulting areas where our ten doctors were hard at work, and then to the nursing treatment gazebo where IVs were running and emergency care being given by Jennifer, Tonja and Colleen; wounds were being dressed by Kelly and Antje; dehydrated kids were being rehydrated by Claudia and minor surgical procedures were being done by Dr. Martin. We toured our state-of-the-art mobile pharmacy and pharmacy counselling areas with Linda, Sherry, Stacey, Mary, Karen and Nicole. We watched a peripheral iridotomy being done to cure glaucoma by Dr. Martin and Marion and hernia operations on children by Magdi’s 18-member incredible surgical and anaesthesia team. We also stopped by our dental tent where Dr. Kyle (here for his 6th time) was pulling challenging painful teeth while Dr. Francois was doing a filling with Laura (while the patient tried not to laugh at his jokes). Final stop was our eye clinic, where hundreds were being seen by Dr. Larry and Dr. Mai and their team of Laurel, Paul, and Jane in the peanut storage facility (AKA the “nut house”). Crowds were controlled and patients were flowing seamlessly through these stations due to the incredible effort of our logistics and operations team of Kim, Bry, Dave together Abraham, Soale and Charles. As we moved through the clinic I witnessed afresh the professionalism, quality of care and excellence with which each team member played their role. Moses could not believe his eyes.

Together, we have participated in capacity building in Northern Ghana. Transferring skills to our Ghanaian medical, nursing and pharmacy colleagues is always a highlight for us. How rewarding to hear from them how much they have learned during our short time together and how our presence has inspired them and spurred them on. How amazing for us to have Nicole, a pharmacy student from University of Toronto working along side Emmanuel, a pharmacy student from Ghana on this very team. Eric cannot stop talking about all he has learned from our anaesthesia colleagues Dr. Tony and Dr. Perry and Nicola. Moses, the medical student wants me to keep “grilling him” even today whilst we pack.

Together, we are standing in the gap extending compassion, care and capacity-building while we pray, plan and work towards what these patients so desperately need and deserve — a hospital. Our day ended with lots of hugs and high fives and pictures being taken as we celebrated all that we accomplished together. Esther arrived with 35 new outfits she had made for our team that they will wear at tomorrow night’s party under the stars with all of the NEA staff and families.

We will all look upon this 2016 team photo with many fond memories remembering our precious partnership with NEA staff and remembering the individual faces of the thousands of patients that we had the privilege of caring for. Tomorrow is wrap up and packing day with a few surgeries and procedures to go and then we can begin to turn our hearts and minds to our journey home to our loved ones.

The medical team spent the last two days in the village of Asantekwa and faced extreme crowds and extreme heat. There were many moments to remember …

There were heartbreaking moments … Dr. Charlie cared for a teenager in terribly ill health due to chronic osteomyelitis (bone infection) simply due to lack of access to health care at the right time in his young life. Collecting statistics on the number of children each woman has lost continues to be heartbreaking for us all. I’m so thankful for the Leyaata program which is saving a generation of children and a soon-to-be hospital which will put an end to so many needless deaths.

We served hard, caring for many SIPs (seriously ill patients). Our nursing station had ten kids and four adults on IV fluids on Tuesday alone. Right at the end of the clinic a woman, bitten by a viper, arrived by taxi.

Pharmacy was able to wrap up in record time (4:01 pm to be exact) and we finished the day by receiving our third ram and many yams. The chief made a special point of saying how much they appreciated the gentle hands with which we cared for their people. It was great feedback, as our goal is always to give each patient our attention, love and compassion despite the crowds, noise and distractions.

There were some fun and lighthearted moments … Dr. John decided to rig up some music during the set-up of our clinic and “You Raise Me Up” played on a wireless speaker while we all sang along. Watching team members find ways of dealing with the extreme heat gave us all a few laughs too. My favourite is watching team members resort to wiping their faces with Lysol wipes in a desperate attempt to lower their body temperature. They work!

There were hopeful moments … What a privilege to work along side and transfer skills to NEA scholars. Moses is a fourth year medical student sponsored by NEA; Eric is a nurse anaethetist who is being sponsored to do his Masters of Anaesthesia by NEA; and Emmanuel, David and Brenda’s nephew, is studying pharmacy on scholarship from NEA. Abraham, our fearless and kind leader, just completed his Masters of Hospital Administration in England. The future of health care delivery at our NEA hospital is so very bright with these capable young professionals preparing to serve.

Gentle hands were also at work back on the compound in the operating theatres as our surgical team operated from dawn to well after dusk. They too are facing very challenging conditions in which to work but are completing long lists due to the support from wonderful nurses, the anaesthesia team and NEA support staff.

And we must not forget about the gentle hands of Dr. Martin who had a very productive day restoring sight and preventing blindness due to glaucoma. Let the blind see.

Today and tomorrow we have home court advantage as we all remain on the compound together to run the last two clinics for the Carpenter area. St. Augustine said, “Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.” What a combination! Thanks to friends and family praying for us and sending through comments of encouragement as we make every effort to work hard, finish well, and return home to our loved ones.

Sunday morning we were treated to a scrambled ostrich egg breakfast — only four eggs were required to feed all sixty-one of us.

After breakfast we attended an outdoor church service on the grounds of the compound. The worship band was amazing and the service began with a beautiful time of dancing and singing praises to God for who he is and all he has done. Despite the scorching sun, our team enthusiastically joined dance lines. We thought we did pretty well; that is, until Pastor Charles told us later that we dance out of tune. He said the band made an attempt to change the beat of the drum to help us out but it was to no avail!

My brother-in-law Bryan, who is part of our logistics team, was invited to preach the sermon. He did an amazing job speaking from Mark Ch. 5 while Pastor Ranse translated. Many of the NEA staff told me he touched their hearts and they want to recruit him off the medical team to join the pastoral training team in the future!

Sunday afternoon a local artisan named Peter arrived and a great deal of shopping took place. Peter explained to me that the income he earned from today is the equivalent of at least one year’s income for him and for the other artisans whose crafts he brought. “Now we can feed our families,” he told me with a big hug.

For dinner we were treated to a roast turkey and gravy dinner. We’ve been getting to know the turkeys roaming around the compound this week and didn’t know that two of them would be “taking one for the team.” They were delicious, as was the crème caramel Patience made us for dessert.

Later in the evening we were treated to an incredible presentation by the Leyaata Ane Project staff. Leyaata (which translates “rescue us”) is NEA’s year-round newborn and maternal mortality reduction program that receives funding support from the Government of Canada. Our team was impressed beyond belief with the incredible work that Mumuni, Rachel, Linda, Patrick and Prosper are doing to save the lives of countless women and children through this program that is working in 160 villages. Despite many challenges, the newborn death rates have dropped from 30/1000 to 5/1000 due to this program. We all expressed how proud we are of this team and how we want to do more to support them.

Ernestina, our Ghanaian medical assistant, informed us at dinner that we should expect extremely large crowds over the next two days. She suggested we go to bed early, “buck up,” and apply “more grease to our elbows” in anticipation of two very busy days in the village and on the compound.

We appreciate your prayers over these busy days!

What a day off!

Saturday morning Abraham allowed us to sleep in until 7:00 am. After a pancake breakfast, a delegation of twenty-five of us travelled two hours south to Techiman to visit a 333 bed hospital called the Holy Family Hospital. We were taken on a wonderful tour of every department including the ER, wards, OR, xray, lab, and maternity that delivers 5000 babies every year. Charge nurses from each department welcomed us and explained their departments. We were extremely impressed with the professionalism we witnessed and the care that was being provided despite significantly fewer resources than a hospital would have in our home countries. Those of us on the tour who are involved in the planning of the NEA hospital took notes and pictures and have already been discussing how we will apply what we learned today.

Imagining that kind of care being available to this region of Ghana has increased our motivation and determination to do all we can to help NEA get the doors of their hospital open. Based on what we saw this week, it could not be a more urgent need. (Please read about the NEA hospital and spread the word to all your friends about the big green DONATE on this website.)

Meanwhile, back at the compound, the rest of the team went on a walking tour of the Carpenter village, relaxed, napped, read books, and played cards. When the bus returned from Techiman, everyone departed to spend a couple of hours at the Bamboi market.

Saturday night was a night to remember as Social Convenor Sue transformed the Mensahs’ living room into a stage. Their dining room table became a feast of party snacks from Canada, UK and Ghana. The first annual Ghana Health Team Talent Show surpassed all expectations!

Our MC Bryan kicked the night off by asking Magdi, Tony, Ramona, Antje, Francois, Dave, Kat and Abraham to come to the front. On the count of 3 he asked them all to sing their national anthem. (It was really amazing to hear the national anthem from Egypt, Canada, Romania, Germany, France, England and Ghana all sung at the same time.) We laughed and laughed and laughed as we watched some very creative acts. We enjoyed skits, songs, parodies, knock knock jokes, odes, fashion shows, Ghanaian fables, Port Perry lip sync battles, monologues and pictionary competitions. Props included urinals, Immodium tablets, water bottles, head lamps, mosquito nets, IV tubing, skirt fringes made from empty boxes of deworming medicine, Scottish caps … and of course cardboard latrines.

There were some tender moments, too, as Martin read an Ode to Living Friends, Abraham sang “Make My Heart a Home for You” and Sue wrote a beautiful song for me called “Hey Jenn” to the tune of “Hey Jude.” The final act was a Ghana parody written by Carlye to the tune of “The Sound of Silence” which concluded with the line “For we have great love…. for Ghana”. It was a fitting end to a day that has left us rested and refreshed.

Laughter truly is great medicine and somehow I think the weight of the suffering we have witnessed this week feels a little lighter than it did yesterday.

Blog posts should be brief, but there is no way one could be brief when describing the past two days in the life of our team.

The surgical team put in a gruelling two days in the theatres. Yesterday a large number of children were operated on, and we are thankful to God that their surgeries were successful. Today brought some very difficult and challenging cases — large hernias requiring general anaesthesia — but this team, together with our Ghanaian anaesthetist Eric, have done an incredible job of preventing needless deaths from hernia. Their roster is full and Dr. Magdi has already booked half of the surgical slots for 2017.

Meanwhile, the medical, dental and eye team spent the past two days in the village of Yaara where NEA’s Director, David Mensah grew up. We were greeted by his brother, Chief Joseph, and elders who presented us with yams, fruit and a ram along with a special gift for my daughter Claudia. We were thanked “elephantly” and our visit was declared a historical event.

We worked so hard over these two days in extreme temperatures caring for a very large number of patients who have no access to health care. We wholeheartedly served each person, giving them our very best care at every station of the medical clinic, at the dental clinic under the trees, and in the 39 degree eye clinic at the church. The entire clinic ran efficiently and effectively due to our amazing Canadian and Ghanaian logistics leaders who always have had us home before dark every day.

Despite the incredible suffering and health conditions due to poverty that we see, the mood in the clinic is very buoyant and light and laughter is heard throughout the clinic — especially between team members and our translators.

Each day always brings a few challenges our way, but each one is dealt with collaboratively and quickly with our leadership team and the NEA leadership team. It is a beautiful partnership.

Each day also brings one or two cases that really stand out from the hundreds of patients we see and treat. Yesterday it was a sick baby who caught the eye of our lab technician Tracey just as we were beginning to pack up. I believe that baby would have died that night had she not received treatment. Today it was Dr. Helen’s infant patient — 3 months old with severe malaria who would have been one of the 10 million kids who die every year of easily treatable diseases like this. Due to a great team effort, and God’s grace, both kids survived.

I love this team. Everyone seems intent on going out out of their way to look for opportunities to serve, encourage and cheer each other and the NEA staff on at every opportunity. What fun. What a privilege.

As we approach the mid point of our mission we are all beginning to really appreciate small things we may take for granted at home — like a shower, a toilet, a breeze, like not being constantly soaked in sweat. As Dave said to me at dinner tonight, “Being here changes you”. Witnessing poverty and the effects of poverty with one’s own eyes changes you. Working and serving in challenging conditions outside of comfort zones changes you too.

The team will now enjoy two very well deserved days off. Excursions are being planned by NEA staff. We are all really looking forward to tomorrow night, which is the first annual Ghana Health Team Talent Show coordinated by Dr. Sue!

We are so thankful for the prayers, best wishes and support from so many of our friends, family, colleagues and community. Your support got us here and sustains us here. You can all be very proud of this group of amazing individuals that are representing their professions and countries so very well as they serve NEA and their ultimate vision of long-term sustainable changes in people’s health.

Until next time!

The experiences, memories and challenges of providing health care to our global neighbours over the past two days could fill a book.

Tuesday was full of firsts as the medical team ran its first clinic in the village of Nyamboi. Doctors had their first cases of severe malaria, tropical ulcers like yaws, and even a scorpion bite. Our dental team dealt with a child who could not open his mouth due to an untreated jaw fracture, while our optometry team had their first cases of trachoma. My daughter Claudia witnessed, for the first time, the appearance of a child near death.

A huge volume of patients were cared for by this unbelievable team effort and a Canadian and Ghanaian logistics team that is second to none. Every single team member worked hand in hand with our Ghanaian friends and colleagues to achieve results that surpassed our expectations.

Back at the compound the hernia team had an extremely busy and productive day and were ready to join us for dinner when yet another emergency arrived. Without a moment’s hesitation they were back in the OR theatre. Around 8:00pm our leaders were debriefing together and planning for the next day with the NEA team leaders when a messenger came running: another patient with a strangulated hernia who would not survive until morning without help.

Our day ended with a little birthday party for our pharmacist Mary. Her teammate Francois presented her with a lovely gift: a shoe box full of treasures from the team, including a tea bag, stickers, protein bar, and some Imodium. Special entertainment involved Leslie singing “Lavatory Man” — an ironic choice considering our growing body of latrine stories and unfortunate mishaps.

Today we were greeted by refreshing temperatures of 18-20 degrees and an NEA security guard wearing a winter coat and hat.

After an early morning bus ride our medical team was back to Nyamboi and hard at work by 8:30am. At 9:08am Leslie, one of our most seasoned triage nurses, came running towards me with a frantic pitch to her voice that I had not heard before. A 16 yr old boy with severe malaria arrived by car and was too sick to even walk. Dr. John and our nursing team of Joan, Val, Jessica and Lissa jumped to action. After IV antimalarials and IV fluid he was sitting up by noon and was discharged from the clinic mid afternoon.

Other highlights today included the start of our laser eye clinic to treat glaucoma. Yesterday Dr. Mai identified a patient who was blind and unable to walk unaided from acute glaucoma. After 24 hours on medication and laser surgery today by Dr. Martin, her vision was completely restored and she walked herself out of the clinic.

At the end of the day the Chief of Nyamboi presented the team with their first ram and a large pile of yams. He thanked us profusely and sent us off wishing us “more grease to your elbows” and a prayer that God would replenish all that we had lost in serving his people.

The last two days have also required incredible flexibility, adaptability and resilience by this team and our leaders as they faced each challenge that came their way. Abraham compared it to the story in the Bible when Jesus was in a boat trying to get to someone needing help when a storm arose. Our storm today involved power challenges. Magdi reminded us that “machines failed but we humans did not.” This was so true as pharmacy kept going despite computers not working for two hours, the surgery team kept operating when their A/C broke. (It got to 35 degrees and even our Ghanaian anaesthetist said it was hot!) When the laser surgery clinic’s laminator went down (needed to provide patients with their official medical record), they simply found an iron and carried on.

After our incredible day of work, Patience prepared a feast including pumpkin ginger soup with fresh bread, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta, salad and fresh watermelon. We are not suffering and the few pounds some of us were hoping to shed do not seem all that likely!

There is an African proverb that says, “If you wish to move mountains tomorrow, you must start by lifting stones today.” A lot of stones were lifted over these past two days — I wish I could speak of them all — as this group of dedicated volunteers continue to serve NEA and their vision for sustainable health care for all.

Love to all our family and friends back home, who we are missing very much.

It was not hard to choose the title of tonight’s post.

Our morning began under the gazebo with the NEA staff as our hosts led a beautiful time of singing and prayer for this mission and for our families back home. Abraham, who is in charge of this mission and who will be the administrator of the NEA hospital, shared a message which he entitled “Right on Time.” He explained that there would be many sick people that would come to us “right on time,” and that in healing those individuals we would wipe away many tears and restore joy to many communities.

You know where this is going … about an hour later an eighteen year-old man arrived with a life-threatening strangulated hernia.

Everyone kicked into action: pharmacy had their medications ready to go and that surgical and anaesthesia team saved a life before the theatres were even completely set up. Right on time indeed! I had the privilege of bringing Abraham in to see Dr. Martin and Dr. Kat and our surgical nurses in action — and to see for himself the significance of what he had just shared with us moments prior.

Our medical, dental and eye team ran a clinic for the families and friends of the NEA staff who needed care. We were struck by the seriousness of many of the cases we saw — some heartbreaking. Dr. Steve looked after one of our sickest patients of the day, who had severe sepsis requiring fluid resuscitation. She was too sick to return home so she is spending the night with us on the compound where our nurses Jessica, Joan and Sandra are caring for her. We pray she makes a full recovery and are thankful she, too, arrived right on time.

It has been a very full day, yet back at the residence there is much laughter, visiting, reading, and journalling going on. And shopping. We women find a way to shop even when we are in remote, rural Northern Ghana. A local seamstress has some very happy customers this evening.

I’m extremely thankful tonight for this team of selfless men and women who, on our very first day working together, executed their duties with excellence, with compassion and with a sense of humour that resulted in an incredible team effort right on time.

Abraham was bang on.