Tumble on the Way Home From Church...

Uh-oh- another tumble!!! Not as serious as sometimes though;
this one merely resulted in a small slice on the head of the
young chap involved.

The nurses decided it was a good idea to stitch it though, just
to be on the safe side...

Anita and Virginia Rudolph tackling the project.... He showed up
just after church on Sunday...

All better, careful on those trails sonny!!!!

Broken Wrist...

Ouch!!! This broken wrist looked REALLY painful! The son of one of the
leaders in the church here, this young man fell and landed wrong on
his hand, resulting in the damage you can plainly see here.
At this same time, his older brother was checked into the CTC and
was being treated for cholera! Poor family...

This situation was beyond our ability to help, so we needed
to send him out to Ti Guave.

With his Mom, after the arm was well wrapped to prevent further
movement and possible damage...



He got his bone set on Friday or Saturday; we haven't seen him
back up here yet...



At the Clinic...

During the past several days as things have been very busy at the CTC,
we have certainly not been shut-down at the normal clinic! In fact we have
continued to see an ordinary amount of people there, and over the past few
nights we've had 2-3 patients staying in the hospital rooms, with various
complaints. This man apparently has a fairly serious ulcer, or at least that
was as close as our nurses to get to it. We basically stabilized him over
several days time; he will still need to go see a specialist, but at least we
were able to IV and rehydrate him- he was severely dehydrated on arrival.

This lady appeared to have a combination of other illness with hyper-tension
issues, which gave her severe pain and a fear that something more serious
could be going on. It seemed that once we were able to keep her tension
medication in her, she is improving; but she'll be monitored for a few days
yet more than likely.
It looks as though the man above, will be able to go
out with Pastor Levy this afternoon...

Cute Babies...

We sure get some cute little (or not so little, as the
case may be) babies that come through. I'm not
certain which of these babies are on the milk program,
or whether all of them are...

Wide eyed little girl there!!!! It's a big world!!!

"Oh yum!!!" (I like the blue ones myself... )  :)

Cholera update...

Hey everyone, just a quick update from the front line. We had 13 people in the hospital overnight, which sets a new record here. Included in that number are 3 or 4 young children- 2 to 4 years old. I think I counted 7 IV's running. So far everyone that has been released from the CTC has walked off in good health, so praise God for allowing us the opportunity to serve and help bring his healing in this troubled time!!!

Keep following us on the brand-new Cholera Blog, the link is right here on this page. Or, you can sign up to receive email alerts when new updates are posted. Also, drop us an email if you would like to get the occasional email updates we post; we'll be happy to sign you up for those.

The staff here are doing a great job, really throwing themselves into the work!! We're divided into three eight hour shifts; 2 girls and one guy on each shift. It seems to keep everyone plenty busy keeping up with IV's, emptying waste pails, monitoring the amount of fluids lost and making sure they are replaced with ORS solution, and cleaning and sanitizing everything in sight... :)

Keep an eye on the blog, we'll try to throw on some pics of the teams "in action"!!!!

God bless, keep praying....

Steve

Cholera Treatment Center Blog

Greetings to all in the name of Jesus, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!

As we consider the situation here, with the special Cholera Treatment Center being put up, and the continuing potentially epidemic nature of the outbreak spurned on by local circumstances, we have decided to make a separate blog to cover the action related to the CTC.

On that blog, you will be able to see more pictures (as they come), get information on the disease (cholera), give online donations to the ministry here, among other things.

You will notice a new tab (separate from the others) in the link bar above which says "Cholera Treatment Center"; if you click on that, you will be re-directed to the special blog, dedicated to the Treatment Center; there, we will be providing updates that are separate from the normal clinic blog.

Please continue visiting this blog here, though, for our regular updates to the Clinic.

Also, please feel free to follow both blogs by email, by entering your email address in the "Follow by email" to the right!

God bless you all, and thank you for the wonderful support you give during these trying times.

God is good!

Pictures from the Cholera Treatment Center!

As promised, here are some pictures from the Cholera Treatment Center (CTC)...

***

Getting everything ready for the first patient...

Here's our first patient: the man with the 

brown and white striped shirt... 

He needed some others to help 

him get into the CTC.

Preparing to inspect and admit patient...

After being checked out, the infected man was admitted, 

and transferred to one of the "hospital rooms"...

Going in...

Inside the room, he was given 

medicine and re-hydration through an IV.

(at the time of posting these pictures, he has greatly improved!)

 Michael Martin (on ladder), one of the "first responders"
from the States, building one of the out-buildings.

Along with some on-lookers...

Everyone on the premises are required to help 

contain any contamination, by using masks, gloves, etc.

Anyone entering and exiting the area, is required 

to be "sanitized" by bleach water.

Several of the nurses and helpers getting things 

straightened out and ready to go...

Purified water is very important to the treatment process here;

Not only in re-hydration, but also in prevention.

Since Cholera thrives in water, it can become 

the #1 carrier for the disease, if not purified.

 This is a picture from the night shift. 

The Center is monitored and guarded continually, 

just in case more infected people arrive,

in need of treatment...

***

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. Please continue to lift the people here up before the Throne of Grace... that not only the disease of Cholera would be healed, but also the sickness of sin, which has afflicted so many of these people for years; of which there is no remedy, other than the Blood of Jesus!!

God bless!

Quick Update...

Sorry we've been so slow at getting out info, I know many of you are praying about the situation with cholera here and wondering how things are going. So far things have been fairly quiet at the cholera treatment center (CTC) we officially opened this Monday afternoon. Jeriah Mast from CAM and a crew of young guys with him helped us throw together a small tent city on the trail to Granfour, almost to the bottom of Jack Rabbit hill. We have four tents set up, with various smaller buildings quickly erected to serve other purposes.


We have had a number of people come through; some who probably had a very mild case, some who probably just had a stomachache, and three now that we've hospitalized and started on IV's. These three were carried in since they were to weak to walk- a quick indication of severe dehydration. The first man, who came in late on Monday afternoon, is now off of IV and able to sit up and eat and drink, so praise God for that!


Keep praying, we're not sure how serious this will become here in our local area, so it's hard to know how many staff and how much supplies we need to have sent down. It can be tough to find the balance between going overboard, and being prepared.


At this point, we're leaning towards preparation. In a town not far from here 80 people were reported dead from cholera in one weekend.


Keep praying for God's healing and protection.

We'll be getting you some pics...