This year GANSU, INC has scheduled three teams to serve in Gonghe, Qinghai Province and two teams in Lintao, Gansu Province. The teams send a report at the end of each week to offer an update about their work. These weekly reports give you insight into the activites of the volunteers while on their mission in rural China. As the weekly reports come in, we will add them to the web site. They will be posted as quickly as possible to allow you the opportunity to read the most up to date information from our teams in a timely manner. If you are interested in receiving these weekly reports directly in your email box we would be glad to share them with you. Simply contact our office at info@gansuinc.org.
Remember: You can write to any volunteer at volunteer@gansuinc.org. Include the name of your addressee in the SUBJECT line. Many team members can be reached through their personal email address as well.
GANSU PROVINCE REPORT 7
GANSU, INC Gansu Teams - Report 7, Report 3 of Team 2 Lintao, Dingxi Prefecture, Gansu Province, PRC August 15-23, 2011
Greetings to all from Lintao, Gansu Province!
Our team has now completed our final week…and what a week it was, filled with many highlights! We are completely packed and counted with the trailer/operating room suite all tightly tucked away and covered for the winter. We are grateful to our Father for this effort and the excellent teamwork and hard work of all, but especially lead by our engineer, Bob Scherman. Bob started early on our inventory duties and had an amazing system to streamline our efforts at the end, with many extra helping hands (Dr. Song and her husband Qin Xiao Yong pronounced Ching Shaow Yong, and daughter, Qin Xin Meng pronounced Ching Shing Mong) pitching in, for which we are all extremely thankful.
Our time this week was filled with highs and lows as we cared for the many patients in extreme need of eye care. Two patients come to mind. We were asked by local friends to care for a 15 year old orphan girl who was transported by a rickshaw wagon. We were able to take a look at her. Unfortunately, the finding of no ability to see any light with either of her eyes was out of our hands. Many tears were shed as we lifted her to the ONE who loves her and is able to make her whole. Another patient, an elderly gentleman was able to see and work in his fields cutting chives, when suddenly he awoke and was unable to see clearly, two days before coming to our clinic. He also had extreme eye pain, headache and even had stomach upset. He was first seen in the local clinic and was told that there were no beds available for him but maybe he could be seen in another hospital approximately 3 hours away. One of his relatives was aware of our team’s work and asked us to see him. We gladly accepted. After the man reluctantly agreed to let us examine him, we gave him eye medicine and sight saving laser eye surgery! His eye pressure was dangerously high in both of his eyes because the normal drainage system was suddenly blocked. Without treatment, this rapid, extremely high pressure would have left this gentleman permanently blind in both of his eyes. Fortunately, at his last visit his eye pressure was normal in both of his eyes and the swelling that was causing much of his vision loss was subsiding, with his left eye almost back to normal! Much praise and appreciation goes to our Father. The patient’s relatives tell us this once resistant gentleman is now more open to the ways of our Father. He will receive follow-up care and be monitored for continued vision health in the local clinic.
Dr. Song is an excellent eye surgeon and she has progressed into a fine ophthalmologist. Our surgical outcomes continue to bring much needed vision restoration to many, for which we remain thankful.
“Citty” Scherman, serving as our “Cinderella” has been a wonderful servant to and for our surgical suite, with her fine instrument readying skills and her joyful and humorous attitude lifting us all, both inside and outside of the trailer. Her warm smile and encouraging words helped us navigate some tenuous times here in China.
Our nurse, Iona Holsten, despite a touch of “altitude sickness” has bounced back with a stellar performance of sterile surgical instrument transfer and expert record keeping, second to none, for all of our patients. She has also led our team in spearheading practical compassionate outreach to a local homeless man without any feet, whom we pass many times every day. He now has a new, clean sleeping blanket/ bag upon which to sit/sleep, given with a warm smile and genuine touch of encouragement. Iona is truly an inspiration to us all.
Gratefully, we have also been able to work with our local resident hosts, providing opportunities for them to increase their eye laser surgical skills and hopefully build on-going relationships.
Much thanks and appreciation also goes to Alice Chen, our interpreter, “The Voice of Team 2”. Without her tremendous abilities and servant’s heart, our team’s daily needs of food, water, transportation and patient communication and education would not have occurred, at all! And her gracious translations of (this surgeon’s) feeble attempts at Mandarin, smoothed out any patient misunderstandings. We all depend on her communication skills daily for every outside interaction. Thank you, Ms. Alice, for a job well done!
As we say “zai jian” (Good bye) to Lintao, we will miss our fun times with the warm people and rich culture of Gansu province: with terrific and overabundance of Chinese food samplings, hot-pot delicacies, beef and spicy noodles, “bao zi” (a local hot breakfast steamed wheat pastry stuffed with meat or veggies) and “farm restaurant” feasts in a private dinning venue, with our local friends and hospital staff. We will also miss our daily interactions with the street market vendors and shop keepers, Dr. Song, her husband and charming daughter, and the fine staff at the hospital. Our walks in the Yue Lu Mountain Park and along the streets of Lintao as well as observing/playing badminton and Chinese calisthenics will also be fond memories.
Please remember us as we start to travel back home on Tuesday, August 23, with stop-overs of various lengths in Beijing; and Dr. Song and family returning, via bus, to Qin’An. We ALL look forward to being reunited with family, friends and loved ones, knowing that a job well done of bringing sight to the unseeing in China is now complete.
Written by Dr. Bret Crumpton; serving with Bob and Citty Scherman, Alice Chen and Iona Holsten.
QINGHAI PROVINCE REPORT 10
GANSU, INC (dba WEST CHINA VISION PROJECT) Qinghai Teams - Report 10; Report 3 of Team 3 Gonghe, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PRC August 7 – August 14, 2011
The third team has now completed the process of “closing up shop” for another year. All our supplies are counted and an inventory has been prepared. Hildegard and Esther have emptied and rearranged the surgical trailer’s operating supplies. I, Dr. Baxter McClendon, disassembled the microscope and helped wherever possible. The trailer (operating room) must be “made right” for storage—cleaned, collapsed and moved into the garage for another year. The generators must be emptied of gas, refreshed of oil and then secured. A lot of small details must be completed before leaving, Sunday (August 14), for Beijing.
Our team completed 65 cataract operations and three other operations, one being the repair of Dave Razo’s (team leader) lacerated finger, all accomplished over 13 operating days. The total number of cataract operations for the entire three teams was 206 with four of these cases representing bilateral cataract extractions.
Our daily schedule usually began at 6:45AM with a team meeting, a quick breakfast, and usually the hospital van picking us up at 7:50AM. If the hospital van doesn't arrive on time, then we take two taxis with Sam leading the way. Hildegard and Esther quickly prepare the camper (operating room) and I go into the storage area (box room) to pull the implants and to prepare a hot water thermos to prevent the operating binoculars from fogging up during surgery. Dave gets the generator power quickly on and Sam sorts out the patient line-up for the day.
Dr. Zhong quickly shows up to dilate the first patient and to give the retro-bulbar injection (bupivcaine, 0.75%). Later the same day, Dr. Zhong brings all the pre-op patients over from the hospital in the late afternoon to perform the measurements (A scan) for implant power determination. She has also completed her first cataract operation this month, and has now performed a total of six cataract surgeries—hallelujah!
After the retro-bulbar injection, the patient, with some help from the various family members, walks over to the surgical trailer. With the strong-arm help of Dave, instructions in Tibetan from Maria/Alicia, record keeping from Sam/Hildegard, and encouragement from family members, the patient is hoisted into the back of our Coleman Camper for their cataract operation.
The “super pinkie,” for reducing the initial pressure in the eye, is removed; the eye prepared/draped, the microscope focused, the surgeon's hands are washed/gloved and off we go. Dave and Sam are outside the camper directing traffic and “putting out fires.” Esther is busy sorting out/cleaning all the O.R. instruments. She keeps us moving along with no surprises. Hildegard, our nurse, is close by to help as needed.
Many of our patients have traveled one, two, or even three days to get to the hospital. In some cases, they spend two days walking or on horseback before reaching a road to catch a bus to Gonghe. One of our small, elderly, female patients rode to us on the back of her granddaughter. The patients are amazing, cooperative, and appreciate of our efforts.
Sam has kept an ongoing precise list of how many sheep and yaks each patient’s family possesses. Financially, three sheep is equivalent to one yak. Any patient (family) with over 400 sheep or 50 yaks represents a wealthy family. The family always knows the exact number.
After finishing our daily operations, we have a quick lunch in the hospital café with Sam making great selections. I will miss the great vegetable dishes--eat more seaweed! Then, it’s off to the eye clinic with many patients, family members, and spectators wandering about watching the action. Patient beds in the hallway, men and women patients in the same room, family members cooking in the corner of the rooms, small kids pushing forward touching the hair on my arm, masked student nurses wandering about, congested hallways, and everyone looking at everyone, these are just samplings of the normal visual panorama. Dr. Yuan Dan, staff ophthalmologist, has helped us on the ward; examining the pre-op and post-op patients. His help has been extremely valuable.
After checking on the day’s immediate post-op patients at their bedside and giving out ibuprofen if necessary, it’s off to the eye room (slit lamp) to see the post- ops from the previous day and potential pre-op patients. Dr. Tia and Dr. Wang have done a great job triaging the potential cataract patients before we ever see them.
Clinically, I am surprised to see so much macular degeneration-more than I expected, and a lot less glaucoma/optic atrophy than I had anticipated. I saw a new, for me, horizontal inferior superficial corneal opacity, which appears perhaps a variation of spheroidal degeneration secondary to exposure. As expected, we saw many mature cataracts and more corneal problems than in the developed world.
Dave and Esther usually stay with the camper in the afternoon and prepare for the next day’s schedule as well as maintenance to ensure everything runs smoothly. Our day usually finishes between 5:00-6:00PM with everyone tired.
Earlier this week we all went out to eat at a local restaurant (The Spring) and invited Dr. Yuan and Dr. Zhong to show our appreciation for their ongoing support. Alicia also attended. Alicia and her sister Maria have helped not only as Tibetan translators, but in many other ways as well.
The team has worked well as a unit and we have all pulled together to accomplish a lot.
Amazing Grace—the patients and their families have shown amazing gratitude during our visit. We have received a number of services and gifts to show their appreciation. There was the local government electrician, turned independent barber (now with three shops) who provided a free haircut, shave and trimming of an overgrown beard because his father had received surgery the previous year. There was the silversmith who, when told of our efforts, provided his services at next to nothing rates. There was the taxi cab driver who refused to accept his fee because a year ago his mother-in-law had received help. And, there was the lady at the local farmers market who literally ran Sam down to give him some grapes for providing sight to a close relative—all this makes us feel great, and we know the glory goes to the Father above.
An interesting story that provides a humorous testimony is the tale of Long Feng-yin, an 82-year old farmer’s wife living in Huang-yuan County. She could not see clearly for many years. Dr. Ana extracted the cataract in her left eye in 2010. Now she could see much better and was very thankful. Her only lament was to discover that “her children’s faces had aged,” which she did not notice with her poor vision before the surgery.
Thus ends another successful year in Qinghai Province in the service of His word. Written by Baxter McLendon, with contributions from Dave Razo, Hildegard Moir, Esther Jen, and Sam Wei
