Dear friends, a hospital is a living organism that is always growing and changing. Surgery is very stable at Shell, but family medicine is challenging. Dr. Juan Carlos Panchi, the former leader, companion and friend has recently resigned for personal reasons. We thank him for his faithful service for well over a year. Now we have one less important family practitioner who was particularly important for the inpatients. Please,pray for good Family Physicians with hospital experience. We are urgently looking for good medical staff who would like to work in the distant province of Pastaza.
There are also encouraging stories to tell. Dra. Zobeida Guzmán and Rolando Guashima have completed their one-year training as hospital chaplains and received their diplomas in a ceremony. As a gynecologist, Dra. Zobeida Guzman has the opportunity to care for women and their families every day. It is her gift to help women in many difficult situations, especially during menopause, marital problems, or with fertility or cancer trouble. He works on the cleaning team. Research years ago found that the best conversations about faith were started by the cleaning crew. Conversations just happen on the side. Now we are thinking about which of our staff is next ready for such a course.
We again see that our hospital is important for emergencies. A 40-year-old indigenous man comes out of the jungle, seeking care. They often fish with explosives, which is officially forbidden. If you drop the dynamite too early, you lose it in the water. It must explode above the water surface. If you let go too late, you often lose your hand. This patient could have had his hand amputated. For an indigenous person who can no longer use his most important hand, this is more than a handicap. It totally questions a whole life and his position in the village. Surgery is important but it is only the first step for a holistic healing.
An essential area of our clinic is occupational therapy, especially speech therapy for children. It’s about more than stuttering or the correct pronunciation of individual letters. With such children, the broken family situation often becomes clear, and the therapy is more complex. Many of these families hardly find any help in state institutions. So they come to us. And why does therapy for the little ones cost money at all? The poor cannot afford it or do not see the need to spend money on children. This is one of the important subsidy projects of our clinic.
We need help there too.
The hospital is just about financially sustainable. Now it gets even more difficult. On one hand, we have created new jobs in administration, but we need more help with family medicine. The expansion of our guest house for foreign short-term visitors has been interrupted due to need for more financial help. In March this year, our son-in-law Rico will come with a work team from Germany to Quito for a few days and then to Shell. A similar group already “cleaned” the house in the summer of ‘22, so that only the roof and walls remain. The extension with bathroom and shower facilities is now up, and the first story floors are walkable. Tiling is next, and the rooms need finishing before furniture and other fixtures can make the house livable. We are looking for other teams from abroad to take part. Construction is only half funded. That is why the sewage renovation and other plans are being put on hold for the time being. The hospital now has to consolidate.
Despite all internal and external difficulties, we see progress in our hospital. Samuel Rivera, a human resources psychologist, has begun his ministry. We notice that his work is already bearing fruit. We are looking for more doctors to strengthen our team.
Thank you for your prayers and gifts,
THE SHELL TEAM
Eckehart & Klaudia Wolff and Jessica
Morse for the English version
Donations: Lightway Medical Foundation
PO Box 8066 Fort Wayne, IN 46898
Checks can be mailed there, or you can donate through the websites.
LightwayMedical.org/donations.
HospitalShell.org