A letter from Martha Sommers in Malawi
April 13, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
We made it through another children’s ward season. From over 50 children under the age of 5 overfilling the ward, we are down to close to a dozen. The rains that bring malaria, gastroenteritis, and pneumonia are nearly over—though the rains last weekend may mean a jump in children’s ward admissions in about a week. These same rains have brought good crops this year, so malnutrition season is over now that harvest has begun. There still are some very sick little ones. Two died this week. One newborn’s mother drank some herbs to start her labor, which resulted in her amniotic fluid turning a strange color. The baby developed respiratory distress at two days old. A 3-year-old with a distended abdomen and bloody diarrhea arrived shortly before dying after having been at another hospital for a week. His source of drinking water was a river. We used to see many more of these tragedies, but the community health workers teaching villagers not to use herbs to start or augment labor, and the shallow well program of Marion Medical Missions has reduced the fatalities. Yet these deaths remind us that our efforts need to continue.
The worldwide economic downturn will force us to make cuts and changes. All the mission hospitals are in or near financial crisis, and one was temporarily closed. The synod has employed a task force to help us and our sister hospitals at Ekweneni and Livingstonia persevere. We struggle each month to make payroll and keep the essential lifesaving medicines in stock. Our 30-year-old X-ray machine is no longer fixable, so we are transporting each patient that needs an X-ray to Mzimba hospital—an hour’s ride each way—because a new machine costs close to $70,000. Yet thanks to your continued generosity, even during the difficult times we are able to continue.
Embangweni hospital receives donations of money and of things. When we asked for the things or said we could use them—and if they are in good condition—we are very grateful. For example: the wonderful hand-cranked beds and mattresses and the operating room table from Pittsburgh. When we are sent old, broken, or expired supplies—or supplies we have not asked for because we cannot use—we are actually hurt, not helped. My office is now full of out-of-date medical books that arrived recently. One on biostatistics was published in 1938. When we have time, staff members spend hours going through them and disposing of them in a large pit that needs to be dug. Please avoid wasting money and our time on “junk for Jesus.”
When the hospital quiets down, we turn to fixing things, improving protocols, and enhancing education in the community and for the staff. With the help of my cousin, Madeline Caroll, we’ve focused on infection prevention. Madeline returned home last week to her work at Duke University after spending two months here. (She was also my part-time trainer, and I am on the road to better health habits!) Dramas are used for community and staff education, and our local comedians, who have been filmed by Malawi television and are often on Malawi radio, had people laughing as they learned about hospital-acquired infections. According to the medical council of Malawi, Embangweni Hospital has the second-best continuing medical education in the northern region.
My sister Mary visited Africa for the first time last month. She came with her daughter Erin, a mother-son documentary filmmaking team, and some of Mary’s midwifery students. They made friends, participated in our mobile health clinics and maternity services, watched traditional dances, and had the local nsima for some meals. Their trip back to Lilongwe was a bit too eventful as we traveled a muddy Genda road, were flagged down by the police or the army at a checkpoint because someone pointed a camera at a guard. On top of that, I drove into a speed trap (thanks to radar recently gived to Malawi from the U.S. government), and they waited four hours in the car in a parking lot during intermittent rain while a friend of mine borrowed a car from another friend to come to fix the leak in my brake-fluid line. Some of Mary’s midwifery students stayed to join local staff in an education session to demonstrate different positions useful during the second stage of labor. The chapel was full of people watching the drama, as the male actor playing the part of the laboring mother delivered a doll baby in the all-fours position. The head of the doll accidentally fell off during the delivery, which added to the riotous laughter.
Life is rarely dull in Embangweni.
Wishing you a happy holy Easter.
Martha
