October 18, 2008

Dear Friends,

We wanted to share with you some stories of how you are making a direct and profound difference in the lives of people here in the Congo. In many cases, the difference is whether they live or die.

Kayaya Yshimbawu is alive today because of contributions from caring PC(USA) donors.

Kayaya Yshimbawu is 39 years old and has eight children. Earlier this week, one of our physicians, Dr. Jean Jaques Mulalu, was returning from our outpatient clinic in Kananga. As he was passing by the maternity of a nearby Catholic mission, he was urgently flagged down for help. They had a “pregnant woman in shock from bleeding.” Jean strapped this patient on his motorcycle and brought her to Good Shepherd Hospital in Tshikaji. She was suffering from what is called a placental abruption, where the placenta prematurely separates from the wall of the uterus, causing severe bleeding in pregnancy. She was in profound shock, having lost about 50 percent of her total blood volume. We needed to take her to surgery immediately and, fortunately, had two units of donor blood that we had not needed for another patient. We quickly began transfusing blood and transferred Kayaya immediately to the operating room.

All were aware that she had a very high chance of dying in surgery, but would certainly die shortly without it. When we opened her abdomen, it was full of blood that did not have clots. This is due to a large clot having formed between the placenta and the interior wall of the uterus, which used up all of the body’s “clotting factors,” that is, substances that are necessary to coagulate blood. Her blood would no longer clot, and she was bleeding from everywhere. She needed clotting factors which, in the United States, all hospitals have readily available. Here in Congo, we have no such thing. What we can do is transfuse fresh donor blood with the clotting factors it contains.

But we had no fresh blood and no donors. Kayaya’s husband is a very small man, weighing only 90 pounds. Because of his size, he could only give half a unit of blood, and after doing so he went quickly into the village to look for other possible donors. He was able to find donors for his wife because we told him that the donors would be paid using charity funds that you, PC(USA) mission donors, have given. Five donors came forward. Two of the five had compatible blood. Nancy also donated her blood, and we were able to give Kayaya enough fresh blood with its clotting factors that she stopped bleeding shortly after we finished the surgery. She is alive, looking great, as you can see in her photo! Her husband is not a widower, and their eight children are not orphans thanks to your gifts.

Muambi Kabungo needed an operation for cervical cancer but didn't have the money to pay for it. Thanks to contributions from PC(USA) donors, she was able to have the operation.

Muambi Kabungo had cervical cancer that was advanced but still operable. She is a poor village woman with no money, but we performed the operation anyway, paying for her surgery, hospitalization, and for three units of blood with the gifts that you have provided to charity care. It costs about 30 dollars per unit to buy blood. Fortunately, she only needed one unit, and we kept the other two in reserve. (Those were the units we used initially for Kayaya in order to give her enough blood pressure to be able to operate her.) Today, Muambi is recuperating very nicely after a surgery that has a very good chance of curing her cancer.

Last December we told the story of Mujinga. Mujinga was admitted convulsing with eclampsia. She looked bad, but she did survive with a very large hospital bill. We asked for your help to pay her bill, and you responded with generosity beyond what was needed. The funds that remained have gone to very good use, including for Muambi and Kayaya, two women who are alive today thanks to your generosity and love.

There are many more stories such as these and many more patients who we cannot help without your generosity. We find a lot of reproductive cancer here, much of it beyond any possible treatment. But some cases are still treatable with surgery. Given that we are the only hospital where such surgery is possible, that makes us the only hope for these women. Good Shepherd Hospital receives some support from churches in the States, but mostly survives off of local receipts from a very poor population. Unless patients pay for their care, the hospital cannot afford to give that care. It breaks our hearts to have to tell patients that before we can schedule their surgery, they must pay what amounts to a down payment of about 110 dollars (the average annual family income in Congo), which is way out of reach of most patients, and they never return. The help that you give is their greatest hope. It literally means their lives.

We thank you for saving so many and ask you to help us save more.

Would that we could save them all!

Our love,

Mike and Nancy

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 17