Monthly Archive for October, 2006

October 2006 – Kylie Bentham

Published by Kylie Bentham on October 29, 2006 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

Week 21 of the Ghana Outreach is upon us and Mercy Ships has made a difference to over 1400 patients who have received free surgeries on board the M/V Anastasis.

It has come with its challenges with a few patients returning to surgery due to airway or bleeding problems. This month Dr Leo Cheng has been operating removing very large goiters from patient’s necks. Some of the surgery that is done on board is high risk due to the nature of the tumours and the area of the body we are operating on. The majority of our work is done on the head and neck region.

As part of the service to the patients during their stay on board, the Anastasis has its own blood bank. The crew kindly donates their blood should anyone require it in an emergency. The laboratory technician on board checks and cross matches blood for the patients that are at risk of bleeding before their operation. The donors or crew members are on call 24 hours should the need arise to transfuse their live saving blood

CT scans and X-Rays help the doctors determine the extent of the patient’s facial tumours so that the health care team can plan their operations. Recently the CT scanner onboard the ship broke down and needs a certain part to fix it. Fortunately Mercy Ships has been able to access a CT scanner here in Ghana that we can send our patients to. This has allowed us to continue operating safely bringing hope and healing.

The ward and operating room department are on different levels. The operating room department is located above the ward on ‘B’ deck. The ward and intensive care unit is on ’C’ Deck. This creates a problem with transporting patients after they have received a surgery. Fortunately a very clever crew member has devised a pulley system so that patients can be transported safely down a set of stairs. It can be quite tricky when there is a ventilated patient needing to go to the intensive care unit involving many people in a small confined space trying to maneuver down a staircase! It takes quite a bit of teamwork as you can well imagine!

In order for the Hospital Ship to function it requires fuel to keep the engines and generators going which in turn allow essential equipment to keep functioning. This involves a process called bunkering. If the Anastasis was out at sea a ship carrying fuel would come alongside and off load it. Currently we are situated in a Harbour and so a large tanker arrived on the dock this month to transfer the fuel.

Many exciting and fascinating things go on here while serving on a large hospital ship in West Africa. There are many things to learn about ship living and there is never a dull mo

October 2006 – Sue van Schreven

Published by Sue van Schreven on October 29, 2006 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

October started with a quick trip to Auckland for the announcement of this years World of Difference winners. Congratulations to them all.

Its always an encouragement to see the others working on their respective charities and this quick trip was no exception.

A lot of this month has been spent in preparation for November and December. November I return to Romania again for a short trip for some promotional work and to give more thought to our hospital programme in Transylvania. There we are trying to see children moved out of a hospital cot situation where they in a sense belong to no-one and have no identity to putting them in to a family type situation. Many of these children are in desparate situations and we are working on some options to see them given a chance at life. I also will connect with our home there and its always great to see the children that we have been able to help. All of the babies we first helped are now at Kindy so the home has moved to a different stage.

We are working on some Christmas promotions and extending our shop base in Invercargill we will have more of a local presence so are excited about the opportunities this will bring us. There will be some hard work bringing the building up to scratch.

Every month we continue to work on our sponsorship base for Russia and Romania and take every opportunity to get in front of people and explain what we are doing.

The Otago Daily Times did a great feature on us and we’ve had some fantastic connections as a result. 

We hope to make some announcements very soon on our Russian project.

October 2006 – Sue van Schreven

Published by Sue van Schreven on October 29, 2006 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

October started with a quick trip to Auckland for the announcement of this years World of Difference winners. Congratulations to them all. Its always an encouragement to see the others working on their respective charities and this quick trip was no exception. A lot of this month has been spent in preparation for November and December. November I return to Romania again for a short trip for some promotional work and to give more thought to our hospital programme in Transylvania. There we are trying to see children moved out of a hospital cot situation where they in a sense belong to no-one and have no identity to putting them in to a family type situation. Many of these children are in desparate situations and we are working on some options to see them given a chance at life. I also will connect with our home there and its always great to see the children that we have been able to help. All of the babies we first helped are now at Kindy so the home has moved to a different stage. We are working on some Christmas promotions and extending our shop base in Invercargill we will have more of a local presence so are excited about the opportunities this will bring us. There will be some hard work bringing the building up to scratch. Every month we continue to work on our sponsorship base for Russia and Romania and take every opportunity to get in front of people and explain what we are doing. The Otago Daily Times did a great feature on us and we’ve had some fantastic connections as a result. See it here. We hope to make some announcements very soon on our Russian project.

October 2006 – Diane Sharp

Published by Diane Sharp on October 29, 2006 in Diary Updates. 0 Comments

What most people do over several months, I think I’ve managed to pack into a few weeks … a whirlwind but worth it!

 

Before I could think this term I was on a plane to San Diego. In 7 days I went to 6 riding therapy centres and had an interview with a NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) Regional coordinator who overseas the centres in California, Nevada and Hawaii. I returned home, moved house (and horse), unpacked and went to Queenstown with my husband, Chris to the Laser Electrical Conference.

 

The variety of centres I visited in the USA enabled me to see diversity not unlike our own in NZ which was reassuring. I knew I would be bringing back stuff that RDA Groups, at all levels, from across NZ, could identify with but could also be challenged by.

 

I gathered information on everything from what equipment they use and where to buy it online, what activities they do, how they raise funds, how they train and retain volunteers, how they certify their coaches and monitor the standards of the centres (with 740 in the USA), how they generate community awareness and what research they are up to.

 

Each centre was unique, but it was clear, especially after talking with Ainslee about the structure and function of NARHA, that there is a model of best practice being driven by the organization and incorporated and continually reviewed within and across the centres. Much like what we are trying to achieve in NZ. The contacts I have made and the information they have willingly shared is therefore going to benefit the entire organization.

 

While so many things were different, some things do remain universal: The horses (all with four legs) are still the ones doing the therapy!

 

It was interesting attending the Laser Electrical Conference, especially as this was a big corporate, and I’m in the charitable sector. The theme was achieving balance: balance between quality and quantity of service provision as well as between work and family life. They might have been talking about lights and switches but several parallels could be made to our service. I plan to share some of this with Groups and apply it to my own work-family life.

 

It was also great to get back out in the field, especially to work with those Groups who have been in recess over winter and also to review some of the clients I assessed in term 2. I am especially proud of Tina and Jean, a rider and volunteer team who have been working really hard on their program and Tina’s progress is phenomenal! She has regained movement in her ankles, she now sits squarely which will prevent any looming scoliosis (because her trunk control has improved and her muscles have strengthened on the left). Would you believe she’s actually gone wheeling around a race track to raise funds for the MS society this weekend, so she’s also obviously feeling really good!