Surgical loupes are vital pieces of equipment, providing doctors visual aid during surgery; but some Vietnamese hospitals have insufficient funds to even afford them.

MEDRIX wishes to address this shortfall, and can hand deliver them in June and July.

For any surgeons or donors who provide for the gift, MEDRIX will send you an in-kind donation receipt.

For more information, call MEDRIX on 425-485 5423, or email office@medrix.org.

Donations can be posted to PO Box 178, Redmond, WA 98073. Or check out ‘Ways to Give’ on our home page.

In this letter, Le Van Thanh grapples to express his gratitude to the donors who have given his son new life, vitality and the hope of a healthy childhood:

“To: MEDRIX Organization,

“Our son is Le Tran Tien Sang. We found out that he has a congenital heart disease since his was 3 months.

“We took the child to Hue Central Hospital where our son was ordered to be surgery. It was so difficulty to our family. We are both farmers. The crops are mostly depending on the weather. Flooding and drought happens so frequent in the central of the country where we live. The family incomes is not enough to afford a family, therefore, we don’t know how we can afford the surgery cost for our son. So, we just look forward to the help of the donors.

“We were so lucky to receive the support from MEDRIX organization that has paid for our son surgery cost. We were so thankful for your help to make Sang’s heart become healthy as other children. Our child was discharged from the hospital and will come back to check up after a month.

“We do not know how to say and to express our thanks to the kindness, generosity of the ladies and gentlemen of MEDRIX. We promise with you that we will be a good parents and will teach our son become a good man and lives usefully to the society in the future.

“May this letter bring you our love and our best wishes for a happiness, good health and good luck in your life. MEDRIX has given our son a healthy heart for a better life. We believe that in the future when our son has a chance, he will be willing to share and help the people who are in difficulty. We thank you again to the donors of MEDRIX for your great help. Thank you very much!”

From the family and father of Sang.

The procedures make a lifetime’s difference.

Without surgery, these boys and girls would see a listless childhood, without the strength to go to school regularly or to play with other kids. As such, children like these are often identified as weak children, unable to support a family’s future and therefore not worth any great investment of resources.

However, these mothers and fathers loved their children so much that they carried them many miles, with scarce little money and one man without the shirt on his back, to ask MEDRIX to sponsor their heart surgery.

Thanks to you, our donors, not one child was turned down, each receiving their surgery in late February and early March.

One boy with a severe heart condition did not make it through his surgery – underscoring the grave nature of these children’s conditions. But MEDRIX is pleased to say that these six boys and girls are on the mend and now have the hope of healthy futures ahead of them.

Dr Mark Jabbusch presents a certificate to one student for completing the MEDRIX Short Course in Medical Terminology at Hue City, Vietnam

HUE CITY, Vietnam: Dr Mark Jabbusch has completed training doctors in the MEDRIX Short Course in English Medical Terminology. Yet through developing a mutual language in their shared profession, Dr Jabbusch discovered a bond with his students and colleagues of a kind he had not reckoned for.

Dr Jabbusch tells his story:

“You know all so well what it is like when you have gathered on retreat for several days running (this week it was for five days) and there has been a program that people signed up for, expecting to learn something new, but not fully expecting the closeness by the end.

“Well something happened this week. Closing of the course was tonight and I am still not sure all what happened. What I do know is there was a shared closeness (couched mostly in our relationship as doctors) that went beyond anything I could have brought to the table.　

“There was a building trust and depth of sharing to the end point when I shared about love. One of the docs had earlier asked me ‘why I had come’. I hadn’t answered well; I decided to try again in my closing.

“I had been working them over with Greek and Latin derivations as part of the way to learn and pronounce medical terms. So I ventured into the four Greek words for ‘love’ at the end:

1. Building from a love we all have for family and clan (very strong over here);
2. To eros love (another reason I had traveled half way around the world and given of my time to be here… to see Barbara tomorrow);
3. To brotherly love (which I could tie into the sharing we had done this week as physicians);
4. And finally to agape love.

“With this I could share that I have known unconditional love, and that it was not mine to keep, but to share. I held that out as long as I thought I could pause, then reaped a lot of hugs and tears and a celebratory (I could only wish it were a fully agape) dinner. I wanted to name the giver of this unconditional love - I made it clear it didn’t originate in me – but I didn’t get that far. Only when my new friend and driver dropped me off at my hotel tonight, I asked if I could give him a blessing. I have idea what I said or what he heard.

“The credit, the timing, the results are not mine. I’d love to have time here to get any more feedback from the participants… we’ll see.

“I do know that ‘surely the presence is in this place’.”

Mark.

Joy abounded amongst convalescents, family members, MEDRIX and Vietnamese heroes alike when they all gathered at the 20+ bed hospital that received them during the crisis.

MEDRIX reported that the man had been ‘air hungry’, with each gasp for breath outlining his ribs before he stopped breathing altogether. The woman had suffered nausea, vomiting and muscle spasms in her arms and hands, was unable to walk by herself and shook uncontrollably. It is believed she suffered from either severe calcium deficiency or food poisoning.

The ambulance-bus rushed the two patients – along with a doctor, several Seattle Pacific University and Vietnamese nursing students, two MEDRIX translators and patient family members -  along the bumpy road to the district hospital, leaving a trail of rural residents in a quandary as to what was taking place.

Their faces each tell a story of how the ordeal and recovery has affected them.

Bus driver turned ambulance driver: Mr Minh with the SPU nursing team in the bus that rushed two dying patients to hospital

Uncommon occurrences can become part of daily life in the service of saving others. That is what’s happened with MEDRIX and the Seattle Pacific University nursing team as they administer care to the villages of Nam Dong, a remote mountainous area of central Vietnam populated by poor ethnic minority people.

Read this account of lives in the balance from MEDRIX executive director, LaRelle Catherman, who was participant in the events as they unfolded:

“Today in our world, six student nurses on our team stayed behind in the guest house (due to symptoms that had them stay close to home) and six ventured back into the villages to attend various Women’s Day celebrations, teaching in the clinics and walking to several homes.  At the homes, nurses taught new and young mothers how to care for their babies, encouraged them in varying their diets to add vegetables and fruits (a necessity to good health, but a luxury that many cannot afford).  Then they walked back to their clinics to continue the afternoon.

“In one clinic a man in great distress was led into the examination room.  He was ‘air hungry’, having a very difficult time in getting enough air into his lungs.  His ribcage showed the strain on his lungs: each gasp for breath retracted his back and chest muscles, outlining each rib.  

“As they lowered him onto the bed to take his blood pressure and help him, he stopped breathing. The doctor jumped into action assisted by the SPU andHuenursing students.  It was clear that the man would not make it without medical intervention, but the clinic was ill-equipped to meet his needs. So an IV was started and the MEDRIX bus was summoned.  Doctor, patient family members and nursing students lifted the man onto the bus.  With one Vietnamese nursing student holding the IV bottle and one SPU student holding his head so as not to let it bang against the window of the bus, with doctor and patient together, our bus turned into an ambulance.

“Mr. Minh our faithful driver drove the rural roads with great skill and uncommon speed, one hand on the horn, the other on the wheel. The bus whizzed by villages, rice patties where ‘bent backs’ labored over the small heads of rice, grazing water buffalo and curious children along the roadside.  No one had ever seen such a sight.  A call was made to the hospital and staff there prepared for the bus-ambulance with its precious cargo to arrive.

“In another village at the same time, a motorbike arrived with a woman who had been sick all day: nausea, vomiting and muscle spasms in her arms and hands.  She could not walk by herself but was supported by two friends, who helped her off the back of the motorbike and into the clinic.  She shook uncontrollably.  She was quickly diagnosed as having symptoms of either extreme lack of calcium or very bad food poisoning.  There was no medication at the village clinic to give her, so another call was made and the MEDRIX bus-ambulance that had been ripping down the rural roads made a quick stop at the second village to pick up the suffering lady and her family members, along with the nursing team who accompanied her.

“Now with two patients, one doctor, several SPU and Vietnamese nursing students, two MEDRIX translators, patient family members and our alert bus-driver-turned-ambulance-driver, the vehicle bumped and sprinted to the district hospital, leaving a trail of wondering rural residents in a quandary as to what was taking place.

“All arrived at the district hospital to an awaiting crew of medical personnel and supplies for treatment.  In a flurry of hands, oxygen was given, IVs were replaced into sustainable veins and our team of heroes returned to the bus, to retrace our steps back to the other clinics where the nursing team members who were left behind waited.

“It was quite a day.  We are privileged to work with such village doctors and nurses.  Sadness comes from knowing they have few supplies and little chance of having the same outcome without emergency medications and transport.  But today we are so grateful for these simple but profound resources.  Our thoughts are with these and other patients as they struggle with their health needs and lack of available resources.

“You will be pleased to know that both of the patients rushed to hospital survived and are recovering at this very moment.”

See where the team’s journey began in Hue City.

Pictured are gradeschool children in Nam Dong receiving a generous donation of toothbrushes and toothpaste from Westcoast International Dental Clinic in Ho Chi Minh City. Dr Andrew, we thank you!

See more of what this international community of practitioners does at http://www.westcoastinternational.com/.

Dr Thai and LaRelle Catherman

Pictured are Dr Thai and LaRelle Catherman, founders of the Seattle Pacific University (SPU) and MEDRIX Study Abroad Program in parthnership with Hue Medical University School of Nursing.  This is the 7th year of the program, during which time 120 nursing students have graduated from the program, with 18 more to graduate this year.

Celebrate with us the power of learning and caring for others.

See the What’s New – News menu for some of the breakthroughs MEDRIX partners have made during this study abroad trip. Or visit the picture gallery for a gamut of what they’ve seen at Hue Central Hospital.

From Hue City to the villages of Nam Dong, the young women and their mentors have not stopped giving of themselves to bring health, hope and strength to the children under their care and to their families.

So well done girls on a magnificent job. You have completed another chapter in the ongoing MEDRIX mission to bring life and hope to the people of Vietnam.

Once you’ve had a look through the gallery, see some more of their work and celebration, significant stories in the What’s New – News menu, and be sure take a look at how their journey began in Hue City.