Contractions grew...

The contractions were becoming more intense as the Ugandan woman was preparing to give birth to another baby while at home last week. Then something happened, with each contraction came intense pain accompanied by bleeding. She started the 12 km journey to the nearest health center, knowing from past experience, something was wrong.

When they arrived at another health center in the district, health officers were not prepared to deal with this type of complication and they quickly referred her to Bugobero Health Center IV where Harry and I were helping. The two surgeons couldn’t detect the baby’s heart beat and when they examined the woman’s lower eyelids, they saw that they had turned white.

They quickly performed a C-Section and saw where she had been bleeding quite a bit at the top of the placenta. A large clot (the size of a football) had formed as a result of a detached placenta. Sadly, it appeared that the precious little baby had died just a few hours earlier, but by working quickly they were able to save the mother, who would have normally died because health workers in the area don’t know how to treat these types of complications.

The newspaper reported last week that 16 women die every day in Uganda while giving birth. We praise the Lord that she did not become another statistic!!

Please continue to pray for the Kissito surgeons (one from Uganda, who has been here a few months and another from Columbia, who has been here about 6 weeks), as they try and save lives by performing about 5 surgeries a day, in addition to seeing patients, in this very poor and needy community!

In the outpatient department, clinical officers saw over 240 patients that day and Harry and I helped with dispensing more that 800 medications; free of charge.

Thank you for your prayers, emails, and your financial support that helping to save lives here in Uganda!

Your ministry partners,
Harry & Pam