GRID and NEA News

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.

As I write, we are crossing the beautiful Black Volta river and shall arrive at the NEA compound in Carpenter in 10 minutes. It has been an amazing journey and this team has held up so very well.

More to come later but we just wanted to let our family and friends know we have arrived safe and sound!

PS: Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how long it will take us to unpack 10,000 pounds of equipment and meds???

Welcome to Ghana!

If what just took place at the Accra airport is any indication of how this team is going to function, we are in for quite an incredible mission. I’m thankful to God to report that all 61 team members and ten thousand pounds of medical equipment have arrived safely in Accra without a hitch.

We were quite a sight at that airport let me tell you! As the men on our team were flexing their muscles loading the big trucks with sweat pouring down their faces, a local man said to me, “You people really work with your whole hearts, don’t you?” He is correct and we got out of the airport and back to the hotel in record time, thanks to an amazing team effort.

Claudia’s response: “Major props!”

Nurse Emma’s response: “There is some pretty great work going on here!”

They are so right!

We have been fed and watered and are now grabbing a very few short hours of sleep before the third and final leg of our journey.

Onward …

What a special day to be Canadian. A day where we pause to remember the sacrifices made to preserve the values we hold so dear — values we often take for granted. A day when we remember those who believed their actions in the present would make a significant difference in the future.

And on this day, Remembrance Day, I have the privilege of departing on a humanitarian health care mission to Ghana with 48 fellow Canadians, to be joined by 13 friends from Europe. What a beautiful opportunity to look at our mission through a slightly different lens than I usually do.

Adrienne Clarkson once said,

We only need to look at what we are really doing in the world and at home and we’ll know what it is to be Canadian.

My kids may think my CANADA fanny pack is a major fashion faux pas. Let me tell you, I’m not sure I have ever been as proud as I am at this very moment to clip on that fanny pack and be Canadian on this November 11th.

Onward to Ghana.

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2016 Team Posts

Heartfelt Thanks
HPIC Provides Team with Medical Kits
Team Receives Support from Scarsin

This weekend the Ghana Health Team departs for their two-week health care mission. And, thanks to the generous support of so many, they will be able to set up a fully-stocked, fully-equipped mobile clinic. The team has met their fundraising goal for this year’s mission and has been able to procure the supplies and medicines that they need to provide excellent health care.

A very special thanks to the Jericho Foundation and Makbraneth Foundation, who together have matched every two dollars donated with another dollar. This grant multiplied the effect of hundreds of other donations, and we are all deeply grateful.

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has donated, encouraged, supported, and volunteered to enable this team leave for Ghana so well-prepared. We look forward to seeing how these contributions, together with the team’s service, are used to positively impact the lives of their patients.