Three survival stories from a hospital filled with Jesus' love

Three children in danger. BMS World Mission helped them all at a hospital in Chad.

A girl fighting malaria. A boy hurt in a camel fall. Another with a snake bite. Step onto the children’s ward at Guinebor II, a hospital near Chad’s capital that is supported by BMS World Mission.


Patients on the children's ward at Guinebor II Hospital receive the very best healthcare from a wonderful team of medical professionals.

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The girl with malaria

Mariam* was bitten by a mosquito and fell sick. The mosquito was carrying malaria, a disease that brings on a fever, headache, vomiting, and severe sweating, and kills a child aged under five every two minutes. Three-year-old Mariam needed to be rushed to hospital, but she wasn’t, because street medicine sellers and the local health centre are often chosen over hospitals by poor families in Chad. Whatever treatment Mariam was given didn’t work. And so she was finally taken to Guinebor II, where Christians in a Muslim-majority community pray for their patients and provide the best healthcare for miles.

Mariam was given the drugs her body needed to fight malaria. The drugs worked, and Mariam survived. You helped make this happen by supporting BMS pharmacist Claire Bedford, who dispensed the drugs that saved Mariam’s life. Claire regularly goes on ward rounds, advising doctors and nurses on the medicine needed to treat patients and bringing her trademark friendly smile to people who are often scared and hurting.

“The infant and child mortality rate in Chad is shockingly high,” says Claire. “So it’s of vital importance that we have a facility where we can provide high-quality, affordable healthcare for the precious children of this country.”

If you support BMS, you’re helping to make that care possible.

What’s a working day in a Chadian hospital pharmacy like? Let Claire Bedford explain:

 

The nomad who fell from a camel

Hassan* and his nomadic family travel on camels, using the traditional mode of nomad transport to carry their belongings from place to place. One day, seven-year-old Hassan came off his camel, hurting himself quite badly.

After days of abdominal pain and finding blood in his urine, he was taken to Guinebor II, where the doctors and nurses got to work, taking x-rays and running an ultrasound scan. The tests showed Hassan hadn’t suffered any major damage, but he remained barely alert to doctors and family, and just slept and slept. The team at Guinebor II catheterised and monitored him, and gave him antibiotics. Gradually, he began to pick up.

And then one day, as Claire was doing her ward round, he sat up and smiled. After a little more observation, Hassan’s urine began to flow clear again, and his catheter was removed. Hassan was better and free to return to the only life he knows.


The waiting area at Guinebor II is often packed with people waiting for the brilliant care the Christian doctors there provide.

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The boy bitten by a snake

Imagine this: you’re ten, it’s night-time, and you feel your skin punctured by fangs. You look down and see that creature that makes so many of us shudder with fear: a snake. For Saleh* that fear was justified. A snake had bitten him and now the clock was now ticking. He needed a dose of anti-venom to counter the snake’s poison and save him from the risk of paralysis or even death. Saleh was rushed into Guinebor II where he was given an anti-snake bite injection and painkillers. The treatment worked and the threat to Saleh’s life passed.

'Seeing children like Saleh get better and go home is such a joy,' says Claire. 'Thank you so much to everyone in the UK who supports Guinebor II in prayer and by financial giving. Both are so important and make it possible for us to help.'
 

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You’ll probably never meet the three children you’ve just read about. And you won’t meet the ones being cared for today on Guinebor II’s children’s ward. But thanks to your giving, BMS World Mission and Claire Bedford can dispense the medicine these young children need to get well. We think that care is worth celebrating. Please share this story to encourage others to support BMS World Mission in Chad.

This story was originally published on the BMS World Mission website and is used with permission.