The Next Chapter

END OF ONE CHAPTER

On Friday September 1, 2017 the hospital held a send-off ceremony in my honor. It was a surprising and humbling occasion for me. August was my last month in Ankaase. Since the beginning of September, I have been spending time with my parents and siblings and preparing to head back to the States. The last 18 months have been amazing, educative, insightful and at times challenging. But through it all, the Lord provided me with the strength to carry on and to keep trusting Him always.

With some of the hospital staff and family during the send-off ceremony

I am humbled by my experiences over the last 18 months especially, those memories formed because of my time in Ankaase. I have been very fortunate to live and learn in an area which lacked basic amenities. But, I was saddened by the vestiges of poverty and more saddened that I couldn’t do more to help those in need.

 There is a great need, especially in the hospital. My first thought during my first visit to the hospital was, “man, what am I going to do here?”. In my narrowed human view, my training and skills couldn’t have been useful because the hospital lacked the equipment and resources I had been trained with. Of course, as time went on I discovered how erroneous that first thought impression was. As I joined the doctors and nurses in taking care of patients, it became very clear to me that sophisticated machines were not always needed to save lives.  Hospital staff were saving lives and taking good care of patients despite facing drug shortages, unpaid insurance claims, lack of essential equipment and understaffed units. Considering all the present challenges, it was a true miracle and a testament to God’s grace each time a patient walked out of the hospital devoid of the illness they walked in with and also, in better health.

During the passage of time, I had the opportunity to appreciate and understand why things were done a certain way in such a low resourced health facility. For example, I spoke out strongly against reuse of nasal cannula for patients and even wrote a proposal to the CEO about terminating that practice recommending one nasal cannula per patient. A nasal cannula is a hollow plastic tube with nasal prongs at one end used to administer oxygen to patients. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the complexities of getting oxygen and its delivery devices to the hospital. After educating myself on these complexities, I understood why the hospital couldn’t afford to throw away a nasal cannula because one patient had used it. Moreover, patients were unwilling to pay for them. Patients covered by the national health insurance were informed that having insurance assured free health care. Unfortunately, insurance, unknown to most of these patients, covered basic things like consultation, some drugs and labs. Therefore, they had to pay a “top-up” similar to a co-pay. It was challenging for most patents to pay this “top-up” so, asking them to pay for nasal cannula was out of the question since they all expected free care in the first place.

However, I came to appreciate the fact that, although patients were administered oxygen via used oxygen delivery devices, they didn’t suffer any adverse effects, at least not in the noticeable short term. Moreover, they got well and were discharged. There were countless times when both pediatric and adult lives were saved because of used nasal cannula. It is important for me to note here that the nasal cannula were cleaned and disinfected with alcohol and chlorohexidine before reuse.

Also, I appreciated the determination of staff to provide care despite the setbacks. I was in the ER one evening when we lost power (electrical). This was a common occurrence. Anyway, it took almost 45 minutes for the hospital’s back-up power to work. While waiting, we continued working with flashlights from our phones. In the maternity unit, they had to deliver babies with the aid of flashlights. Despite all this, lives were saved because of staff dedication and refusal to be deterred by these challenging circumstances.

I jokingly called Ankaase a jungle, but it was far from it. The town was in a rural area with a large forest. Thus, snakes and scorpions were a common sight. I learned to accept this fact and had to confront these critters a few times both in and outside my house. Yup. One night, I returned home and found a “good looking” scorpion hanging out in my kitchen. I thought he was trying to make himself an omelette!  Psalms 23 and 91 became constant Biblical companions afterwards 😊

GRATITUDE

I am thankful to God for all that He has done for me. His blessings, grace and mercy are beyond my imagination. I am also thankful that the Lord used many of you to support the hospital in one way or the other. The management extends their gratitude. In addition, we are grateful for the support provided to Anidasowoha fund. Financial support to the fund enabled us to remove healthcare associated financial burden for a lot of patients. It also helped us to sponsor critical surgeries for a couple of kids both in Ghana and in Zimbabwe. I am also happy to announce that an education fund has been set up for Emmanuella, Regina and Princess, the triplets who were miraculously delivered in Ankaase one Saturday (December 17, 2016) at 4am.

We pray for the Lord’s continued blessings on all those who have supported us both in kind and with Prayers. Most people are unaware that I was working at the hospital without remuneration. I was supported by family and friends both in Ghana and in the States. So, thank you all. And God richly bless you for helping me keep a full belly to get energy to serve others. Your kindness was, and still is, a refreshing reminder of Christian love.

ROMANCE

During my time in Ankaase I met and began dating a wonderful gentlelady. We began dating in April of this year (2017). She is beautiful Christian with a humble mind, soul and personality and I am very lucky to have met her. Contact me in private for all the juicy details 😊 Below is a picture of us.

Shormeh and I at the Kakum National park

MOVING FORWARD

I am heading back to Lexington in a couple of weeks. I have a job with HealthSouth, managers of Cardinal Hill rehabilitation hospital. This will be an interesting transition as my post-nursing school experience has been limited to emergency nursing in a low resourced facility. But I am looking forward to all the exciting possibilities.

Concerning our charitable work, to operate legally and function well in Ghana, I applied for a non-governmental organization status under the name “Hope Reigns Foundation” and received the approved certificate for operation back in July 2017. The four main objectives of the Foundation are as follows;

1.       To provide financial support for patients with extreme medical/surgical needs via Anidaswoha fund

2.       To support local churches in their quest to use preventive health methods as a form of medical evangelism

3.       To establish and manage a sustainable female STEM scholarship fund for brilliant but needy female tertiary students.

4.       To serve as a link between less fortunate individuals and other organizations engaged in poverty alleviation and/or medical missions

Objectives one and two have already been implemented and we pray for the Lords direction and blessings, especially in the foundation’s sustenance. I will be returning to Ghana, God willing, next year (2018) to evaluate a few projects and strategize with the Foundation’s board members on other issues. We are still committed to helping the hospital in its mission to serve the under-served.

I am willing to visit churches and other organizations who are interested in missions (both medical and non-medical) to share my experiences. Please email me at eotsin25@gmail.com if your church or organization is interested.

Please pray for God’s Ray of Hope to spread to those who need it most and to use our humble efforts to remove the burden from those who are less fortunate and bring peace to His children.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

With Love

Shalom

Manny