2020 Surgery Update

by | Feb 4, 2020 | blog | 0 comments

In late January, Kijabe Hospital signed engagement contracts with the construction teams to build the new operating theatre complex, growing capacity from 9-15 operating rooms.  This has been a dream long coming, we first started planning in 2017 and fundraising in early 2018. Construction time should be within two years.  

In general, global surgery faces a triangle of need: 
1. Surgical education
2. Equipment & infrastructure
3. Funding cost of procedures, whether through insurance or direct compassionate care.  

As a faith-based Hospital, AIC Kijabe is unlikely to receive direct support from the government in any of these areas, which is why Friends of Kijabe and partners like Bethany Kids, AMH, and PAACS are so vital.  I’m happy that we have been able to contribute substantially to all three areas through gifts to Friends of Kijabe in the past years.  

Also, as a faith-based Hospital, Kijabe’s mission is to be a leader in the provision of healthcare in East Africa.  Patients of all tribes and ethnicities are healed with compassion, without discrimination.  Mission also happens through educational opportunities for students at partner hospitals in Somaliland and Garissa as you’ll read in Hamda’s story.  

I also want to share a kind note from FoK board member Tom Tillett about the importance of healing in Jesus’ ministry, that people came in search of healing and were transformed in body and spirit.  He reminds that Kijabe is following this example.  
Main and sub-contractors with the Kijabe Hospital leaders after contract signing.  
Dr. Nthuma, Dr. Daggett, and the plastic surgery team.
‬‬Dr. Faith performing a C-Section as the team was assessed for use of the safe surgery checklist.  
At 8 years of age, Hamda almost lost her mother while delivering a younger sibling through hemorrhage in the hands of a traditional mid-wife. Years later, through the influence of her father, she studied and became a nurse. Despite challenges in her country and those associated with gender, culture and traditions,  Hamda is today a qualified nurse anesthetist having undergone her training at Edna Adan Hospital in Somaliland, with a rotation in Kijabe. She returned to participate a mentorship program with our inpatient manager. Kijabe is her second home because she is loved by a family that embraces diversity. To her, this is a true calling to humanity.

You can read a bit more of her story here in a Diamedica blog here: https://link.medium.com/W3m19ypZD3
Dr. Bird and Dr. James Joseph performing a mastectomy.
Boaz, a Kijabe College of Health Sciences scholar through Friends of Kijabe, during surgery rotations.  

“As I have been focusing on reading the Gospels this year, what struck me was that the whole reason why Jesus was attracting big crowds was not his message, but because he was healing people. This gets lost a bit in our modern focus on his messages. But the reason why thousands of people traveled from all over the middle east to see him, was to be healed. They then stayed to hear his message. It seems like this is a great example for what the Kijabe Hospital is doing every day. People come from all over east Africa to be healed, and while they are at the hospital, they have an opportunity to hear the message of God’s love, salvation and grace, and to have their lives permanently transformed. 

Many blessings, and my love and prayers for all you do.”

– Tom Tillett,
founding board member Friends of Kijabe

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