The Screening of the 5,000

The line of people & traffic
outside the screening gates

As I’m trying to figure out how to start this blog about screening day, I’m looking at the numbers that represent the people we saw today.  The number that stands out the most to me is 4,300- the number people who made it into the screening area.  I am reminded of another large group that Jesus saw & took care of- the feeding of 5,000.  He took five loaves of bread & two fish & was able to see to everyone’s needs.  Our screening day saw 700 less then Jesus did when His miracle occurred.  I’ve never really been able to picture what 5,000 people would look like until I looked out my window at the screening & saw the people stretch out in orderly lines.  The amount is still staggering, but I am able to understand what truly a miracle Jesus did.

Lines

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to help everyone that came through our gates.  Out of the 4,300 people only 3454 were actual potential patients (the rest were caregivers) & 1379 people made it all the way through to get the coveted yellow cards that says to come to the ship for either follow up or surgery.  The other 2,075 people were sent away either because they had a non-surgical condition or it wasn’t something we could do on the ship.   

More lines

Patients waited to be registered

The patients were lined up outside our screening area the day before, spending the night in the lines.  At 0630, the gates opened & the people were quickly assessed to determine if it was something we could do or not.  Those that passed were sent to registration & then to history & physical for evaluation.  They were then sent to the appropriate surgical specialty according to their problems (general, maxfax, ortho, plastics, VVF)  If the doctor in that area agreed it was something we could do, the patient would be scheduled for surgery or if the doctor wanted further testing we would arrange for the patient to come to the ship another day.  The patients would then get their yellow card which would become their pass to go to the ship on their appointed day.

Waiting for their physicals

My role this time was scheduling general surgical patients for surgery- a far different job than I had as a Pre-Screener in Togo.  I still had to say no to some people but more likely I was able to give them a date to come back to the ship, either for surgery or to be seen by another surgeon.  The general station was on the top floor of a three story building, it was a long corridor that we set up exam rooms on one end & filled the entire area with chairs.  We saw patients with hernias, goiters, lumps & bumps & other things that didn’t fit into the other surgical specialties.  Our first patient arrived in our area around 0800 & by noon, we were crowded.  By 1900, when the sun went down & we couldn’t see another without flashlights, the last patient was seen & scheduled.

One of the patients scheduled for surgery

A long day, a successful day.  We still have a lot of space left for potential patients.  We are planning some up country screenings to make sure we reach as many people as we can.  Guinea is a very large country & it being rainy season right now, travel is very hard.  We want to help the people of Guinea, not just the people of Conakry.  Please pray for our patients, our surgeons, our nurses & everyone involved with making what we do possible.  



We said yes to this one!

Beauty



This little one needs to gain some more weight
before he can have surgery

Adorable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are in desperate need for nurses- ward nurses, pediatric nurses, OR nurses.  We are having to limit how many surgeries we can do because we don’t have enough nurses to take care of them.  Please pray that God will provide nurses. 

 Blessings