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| Map of our journey. Click to enlarge. |
On Wednesday November 27, Sister Kenison and I embarked on a journey through central Argentina. By the time we were done, we had driven almost 3500 kilometers (2200 miles) in 10 days! It was an exhausting marathon, but we accomplished a lot and learned good things about our service opportunities in the process.
The main purpose for the trip was to participate in three hospital deliveries, in the cities of Mar del Plata, Bahia Blanca, and Neuquen. All of these were to large public hospitals, which often struggle to operate under limited budgets and overwhelming patient loads.
We also took advantage of the trip to meet with stake presidents along the way to prepare for future projects, and to perform a number of follow-up wheelchair interviews.
The first visit was to the "Hospital Interzonal Dr. Oscar E. Alende" in Mar del Plata. The project was the donation of an endoscope cleaning machine. Their endoscopy department had been cleaning equipment mostly by hand, a very tedious process. The machine will allow them to see twice as many patients and will also provide a greater degree of cleanliness and sterility which is critical in this kind of work.
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| A hospital worker demonstrates the equipment to two local Church representatives |
The second visit, in the city of Bahia Blanca, was to Hospital Interzonal Dr. José Penna where the donation included a sophisticated ophthalmalogical microscope and an ecograph scanner. This was a project under the "major initiatives" portion of LDS Charities, so it was largely set up and coordinated by Salt Lake representatives.
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With Guido Lucas, the welfare services specialist for the South America South area.
Shown is the ecograph scanner; the larger (more expensive) microscope not shown here. |
The third delivery in Neuquén's Hospital Provincial Dr. Eduardo Castro Rendon included beds and cribs for their pediatric ICU. I always appreciate pediatric donations a little more; seeing the little children in the hospitals needing care always tugs at my heart! They were using very old and worn beds; these newer ones will provide much greater comfort.
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| New beds donated by the Church in a pediatric care unit |
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Signing the official donation documents; local stake president and hospital director
Note the cookies on the table - typical gracious gesture for this kind of setting! |
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| Pediatric care crib |
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| Grateful hospital directors and staff |
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| Part of their welcome display |
Nice sign there at the end. I know you probably fill out a ton of paperwork, but have they asked you to keep some kind of photo record? It would be nice to see a page on each of these donations with a brief description and a photo. You would have quite a few pages by the end of your mission!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things we submit to the Church as part of closing a project is a brief summary of what took place, who was involved, lessons learned, a few key photos, etc. - all in one document. Nice idea to keep a copy of those summaries for ourselves. Thanks - occasionally you are good for something!
DeleteThese make great FHE reads with the kids. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFascinating work.
ReplyDelete