Baptist Medical Centre

Dr. Christy Lawson is a third year surgery resident who came and spent a month with us. We certainly enjoyed having her and she was a great help in covering surgery call and doing elective procedures. She was sorry that she never did see a case of typhoid perforation which has been fairly common in the past. She was also disappointed that she did not get to see a cobra. Hopefully, what she was able to do and see more than made up for what she missed.

We wish her all the best as she completes her residency and makes decisions about where to use her skills and talents. Maybe she will come back to BMC one of these days.

A team of two doctors, a pre-med student and a medical student spent a few days with us in March. Dr. Emme Nylander, an OB/GYN and Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, a Urogynecologist, Heather Ross, a medical antropologist and Shereene Brown a medical student saw female patients in clinic, did some gyn surgery and brought some good medical equipment for us to use.

Dr. Cindy Shumpert, a Family Practice physician from Rome, Georgia was here from Feb. 29 through March 14. Cindy has been here many times during the past several years and is always a big help. She and her husband, Paul (see earlier post) are also on the Board of the George Faile Foundation. They have been a lot of help in getting supplies and volunteers for the hospital.

We had a good number of people come to work with us in February. Medical students, residents, practicing physicians, a dentist and family.

Dr. Chris Sizemore is a Ob/Gyn resident who came for three weeks and helped a lot by doing c-sections and other gyn cases. Dr. Ty Babcock came at the same time. He is an Emergency Medicine resident and was a big help in doing minor procedures, taking call and assisting with surgery. Chris and Ty worked together a lot of the time they were here. Both of them are at Vanderbilt for residency.

Dr. Faith Chisum and her sister Joy Leitzau came to Africa to visit their brother who is a missionary in Togo. They came and spent a week with us to see what we are doing. We enjoyed having them with us. Faith is a family practice resident and Joy is a nurse.

Dr. Fuller Robinson is a long term volunteer. He has been coming to work with us here for more than 20 years. He is a dentist from Roanoke, VA. He takes care of our teeth and works with our public health department in the villages. This year he discovered a village where people have been drinking well water for the past 15 years and have bone deformities and “mottled” teeth from excess flouride in the well water. His granddaughter, Dana, came with him this year and it was nice to have her here. She is interested in photography and enjoyed observing some of our surgical procedures.

Dr. Jackie Kerr is a general surgeon who has been here a number of times on the past. He was part of a team that allowed the regular doctors to take some time off. He did a lot of surgery and we always appreciate his help.

Dr. Beverly Jones and Dr. Chris Lui are residents from Canada who came to work with us for a couple of weeks. They were traveling through Africa and arrived in Nalerigu after traveling by road from Burkina Faso. They assisted in clinic and helped with call and minor procedures.

Dr. Julie Kang is an Ob/Gyn from Miami, Florida. She has been here many times in the past and is always a big help. Angel Rivera is a medical student from Miami who came with here for the second time. Julie not only does gyn surgery but takes call and does some emergency general surgery.

Dr. Paul Shumpert put together a team to come and help toward the end of January and into February. Dr. Shumpert is President of the board of the George Faile Foundation and has been to BMC several times. He is an Emergency Room physician in Rome, Georgia.

Dr. Walt Boutwell made his first visit to BMC. He was sick when he first arrived, but recovered and stayed to work. He is a Neonatologist from Montgomery, Alabama. He helped care for a number of very sick babies and had a lot of suggestions to make for improvements.

Wes Turner is an Electrical Engineer from Rome, Georgia and has been to BMC on a number of occasions to help improve the electrical system at the hospital.

Chuck Holmes is a pharmacist and he also made his first trip to BMC. He seemed to enjoy his time here and we expect to see him back some day. He, of course, helped out in the pharmacy, but also took a trip out to some of the nearby villages with Tommy Harrison.

Doug Johnson is a fourth year medical student from Birmingham, Alabama. He had planned to go to Kenya for his overseas experience, but when problems developed there, he asked to come with the others to Nalerigu. We enjoyed his time with us and hope he is not disappointed in his second choice.

Dr. Bud Young an OB/Gyn from Tennessee and Dr. Megan Shaw, a second year internal medicine/pediatric resident came as a team for a couple of weeks this month. Dr. Young was able to help by doing a number of gyn surgeries for us and handling our emergency c-sections. Dr. Shaw helped by taking call, seeing patients in clinic and assisting with minor procedures. We enjoyed having them with us.

Dr. Tomas Rebora came in October at time when we were really short. He is from Argentina and was in Ghana to work at a nearby hospital. He came to BMC to do part of his orientation to enable him to be licensed in Ghana. He was with us for three months and was a big help in taking call, seeing clinic patients and assisting in the OR. We wish him all the best as he heads to Guinea to work.

Maryse Larouche is a third year medical student from Canada. We enjoyed having her with us as she learned about medical work in the developing world and assisted us with call, in clinic and in the OR. We hope the time she spent with us will help her decide what specialty she will pursue after medical school.

Not all our volunteers are involved in medical work. Recently, Herman and Doris Jordan from Tennessee spent 2 weeks doing Bible studies and preaching in villages near the hospital. They reported that over 100 people made professions of faith. This is an important part of our ministry here and we appreciate the help from volunteers like the Jordans, who have been several times over the past few years.

We enjoyed our first volunteer team of 2008. They were only here about one week, but they helped a lot and gave us a break. Dr. Pratt is a plastic surgeon , Dr. Harston and Dr. Taylor are OB/Gyn. Jane is a nurse anesthetist and Carol is a nurse. George and Mary Ann were the team leaders. They brought a lot of supplies for the hospital and they stayed busy seeing patients and doing surgery.