Today’s patient is from Wendy’s role as Medical Director.  This is a little premature baby who was born nearby at 33 weeks’ gestation and referred to Bongolo Hospital because of a developmental malformation called laparoschisis, where her intestines were actually coming out through a rare defect in her belly wall.  (Don’t worry, these pictures don’t show that!) She was immediately operated on by our teammates at Bongolo to prepare her for transport the next day to our capital city of Libreville, 350 miles away, where she would receive a definitive operation. 

We used the poor fund (supplied by many of you!) to pay for her hospitalization and surgery here at Bongolo.  And then Wendy discovered that God had arranged for the destination hospital in Libreville to be having a rare campaign of free pediatric surgeries starting just that day for a month.  A donor then offered to cover the costs for an emergency flight to Libreville on our little mission airplane by our pilot with 12 hours’ notice.  Our neonatal physician accompanied the baby and her mother on the flight and monitored her battery-operated IV pump and excellent oxygenation levels, which were supported by having the plane fly at a lower altitude.

With the aid of local Gabonese medical contacts, Wendy arranged for the free ambulance to pick them up at the Libreville airport, and for the pediatric physician to be ready to receive them at the hospital.

We thank the Lord for all His help.  Only by His hand might something like this be possible for a poor mother and baby in the middle of the jungles of Africa.