Although Christian Life Ministries, founded by Pastor Jackson Senyonga, is not a small organization in terms of the things it has done for the Ugandan poor, it only took one small effort to lead to a very big change in the Ugandan hospital system.
When speaking at the Raleigh First Assembly of God in 2006, Pastor Jackson Senyonga hoped his message would embed itself in the heart of the listeners. He hoped to receive support and educate his audience on the Uganda’s plight. He couldn’t have ever expected the significance of his words to one particular listener, Dr. Michael Haglund, a neurosurgeon at Duke University in North Carolina. Dr. Haglund had made several volunteer trips to Ecuador and was intrigued by Uganda’s quandary.
He contacted Pastor Jackson Senyonga and soon after, accompanied him to Kampala Uganda. While there, Dr. Haglund spoke at a church service at Christian Life Church, the church founded by Pastor Jackson Senyonga. The service was held at a venue much like an athletic stadium that housed 15,000 Ugandans. Dr. Haglund spoke briefly with a vow to return with medical equipment. As he finished his speech, he was commended with a standing ovation from the thousands of Ugandans; tears immediately rushed from his eyes at the thought of his chance to greatly change such a troubled nation.
After the service, Dr. Haglund and Pastor Jackson Senyonga toured the Kampala hospital. He was moved at the desperation he saw there. The facility was larger than that of the Duke Hospital, with over 1,500 beds, yet it only housed one working ventilator, a breathing machine vital for surgery and general patient care. Duke Hospital, as a reference, has several hundred of these machines on hand. At the Kampala hospital, doctors carefully consider which patients need the sole ventilator the most, and consider how the use of the ventilator can save the most lives; however, often times this decision condemns some patients to high risk surgery or even death. The decision to risk a few to save the sum is a stressful decision that no human being would want to be responsible for.
Dr. Haglund noticed the staff at the Kampala hospital would try to make due without ventilators by manually squeezing air bags to keep patients alive. He even witnessed a car accident patient that was on the ventilator die when the power went out. As the power came back on, the ventilator did not reset correctly and didn’t provide the patient with enough oxygen to sustain the fragile life. An oxygen monitor would have been a vital tool to alert the nurses of the problem.
Dr. Haglund and Pastor Jackson Senyonga witnessed that there were actually unused ventilators at the Kampala hospital; however, the ventilators were out of commission due to a shortage of replacement filters for the machines. These filters only cost approximately $5 in the United States, and Dr. Haglund pledged to bring some back.
Other equipment pieces, equipment that American doctors take for granted like heart monitors, microscopes, and IV pumps, were no where to be found.
When diving into the source of the problem, Dr. Haglund and Pastor Jackson Senyonga found out that only $25,000 per year was budgeted for medical equipment at this national hospital. And, the hospital hadn’t been received any new equipment since 1999. Even that equipment, which was purchased by a $175,000 donation from a German bank, was second-hand and about ten years old and when it was purchased.
Related Articles:
How To Recycle Your Old Car
Donating Your Car To Charity