Archives - 2006 Newsletters/Updates
As I sat at my old oak desk, looking out over Thunder Bay and cold,cold Lake Superior my thoughts journeyed to sunny Cuba and what MEMO has accomplished with your help over the last year. And then this email arrived from Dr Aurora who does so much to make this project work in Cuba.
"Good night Dr. how are you?, Many works? The xray Shimatzu flouroscopy machine are function well and ok. Please receive the gratitudes of all the Placetas people. You don't imagine like the Lord is glorificar with your work. Say hello to everybody Blesing and a hug" Aurora
The flouroscopy machine that was fixed with a donation of $8000 for parts, from the September Surgical/Technical team is used for diagnosing intestinal cancer among other things.
I am amazed when I think that our volunteers collected,organized, packed and shipped eight 40' ocean containers in 2006. We shipped a mammography machine for diagnosing breast cancer along with all the furnishings including the doors for the breast screening clinic.
Gallons and gallons of xray developing chemicals to allow xrays to be available for diagnosing life threatening illness. 450 Computers to move health care facilities from mechanical typewriters to modern communication. A whole hospital laundry weighing tons to keep the hospital supplied with clean sheets and the O.R. with clean surgical gowns. Kitchen stoves,rice cookers,deep fryers,commercial stainless steel sinks to replace the 1940's kitchen. A chemotherapy preperation cabinet was provided to the Childrens Hospital to insure a sterile environment as well as protect the nurses from toxic fumes.
The list goes on and on.
But we didn't just ship stuff; Three teams composed of specialists and support people went to Placetas during the year to make sure the equipment was properly installed,functioning well, and being used appropriately.
But also amazing is the fact that all of this was done for less than $100,000 in cash donations(less than many organization's CEOs are paid in a year!)
So as I sit here I realize that our volunteers and our donars are making a significant difference in a very efficient and effective way in the lives of people in Placetas, I am filled with Thankfulness.
As the Mayor of Placetas said "MEMO has not just renewed our hospital but has given the whole community new hope and energy"
Thanks to all of you.
Jerome Harvey
Hello Partners,
In the week leading up to the departure of our orthopedic surgical team led by Dr David Puskas and his wife Dr Tracy Wilson for Placetas Cuba the worry and tension slowly increased. On May 20th we had shipped in container # 5, all the necessary state of the art instruments to do knee and shoulder arthroscopy. For a variety of reasons the container had still not arrived at Placetas. In faith the team continued to plan to leave on September 23rd.
The evening of Sept 22 an email arrived from Dr Aurora in Cuba saying the container had arrived. All through Friday night Cuban warehouse workers unloaded piece by piece the boxes of surgical equipment over 1000 seperate computer components and hundreds of other life saving and life enhancing items . On Sunday afternoon the surgical team was able to gather together the instruments necessary to teach these new surgical techniques.
On Monday morning in the operating room, as the new instruments were unveiled, there were tears in the eyes of the Cuban staff as they realized this gift of love from Canada. By the end of the week Cuban surgeons were able to perform knee arthroscopy on their own. This makes possible a whole new aspect of surgury to relieve suffering which we in Canada take for granted.
Meanwhile another team member was placing dolls and teddy bears with sick Cuban children so the Doll's sponser could pray for that specific child daily.
In another section of the hospital two MEMO support staff(read spouses) worked with Cuban maintenance men to install close to one hundred light switches and recepticals on bare wires hanging out of the walls. Often Cuban workers just need encouragement in carrying out what seems like overwhelming tasks.
Down in the xray department our xray consultant got the xray processor running with the proper chemicals we had sent. Now they had clear easy to read xrays. Except one xray machine was working poorly and the other wouldn't work at all. The good news, with some simple adjustments xray machine # 1 is running perfectly. The bad news is that the other machine needs $8000 of repair parts. Our plan is to send these parts with Steve Neufeld as he goes to Placetas on a different mission shortly.
We were also able to deliver manuals for an anaesthetic machine, and an ultrasound machine so Cuban biomedical engineers can keep them running We delivered a spray gun for painting rusty cribs and stretchers. Most important we delivered $12,000 worth of valuable pharmaceuticals.
During the week important relationships and friendships were developed with the Cuban people. This is what really counts in the long run.
Now we are back home we are busy disconnecting,moving and shipping six mammouth Laundry machines from the old McKellar hospital to Placetas. The Thursday of the teams trip, surgury was cancelled as the Placetas laundry had broken down and there were no clean surgical drapes or gowns. Just a reminder to us, our work is not in vain.
In October we will be shipping container # 7 for this year including the donated 15 passenger van, a mammography unit and hundreds of other necessary items.
Yes, you who have volunteered and worked, encouraged, given financial support and prayed for us are all partners in this work. Without all of you MEMO Cuba could not continue.
Thank you
Jerome Harvey
Is what we are doing really making a worthwhile difference in Placetas? Can I honestly tell supporters back in Canada that their money,time and prayers, are giving a good return on the investment? Are we just one more humanitarian organization that spends a lot to accomplish very little? These are some of the questions that ran through my mind as Steve Neufeld(my boss) and I reviewed, hands on, our work in Placetas Cuba the first week of July.
Some answers: From a young mother" When my son was a year old he became very sick. We took him to the hospital. He needed an xray for diagnosis. It was several days before the xray could be taken. We feared for his life. Fortunately he recovered. He is now five. Two weeks ago he again became very ill. This time when we took him to the hospital he had an xray immediately and with in two hours we were on our way home with antibiotics from MEMO. We thank God that now we have a good hospital with equipment that works."
From the head of the government for the Placetas region: "What MEMO has done has created a whole new attitude of hope and interest in improving things in our community not just in health but in all aspects of community life.
From the local director of the ministry of health: The government of Cuba recognizes the quality of health care now being provided in the Placetas hospital. As a result they are developing a University Medical School in Placetas to train 700 doctors and other health care providers. So there is evidence that MEMO has and is acheiving it's goal of modernization of health care with real impact in the community. This means that you as a supporter can have confidence that your help is really making a difference.
The computerization project for the hospital is moving ahead. While in Placetas, Javier the computer engineer working on the project presented me with the detailed network plans. The hardware will arrive in container #5 very soon and the actual instalation process will begin.
We have been asked to ship some toilets in the next container so that washrooms can be completed in the other wing of the closed maternity hospital. This means the elderly now residing in the wing designated for the mamography clinic can be moved and work on renovating the building for the mammography clinic can begin. Because of MEMO people know that things will be done and care will improve.
We are thankful to the local public school board for providing temporary warehouse space in a closed school. On Saturday Sept 16, we will pack container #6 at the closed warehouse at McKellar hospital. Hopefully we will be able to pack all the valuable hospital equipment stored there into the container.
On September 23rd Dr David Puskas and Dr Tracy Wilson will be heading up a surgical collaberation team going to Placetas to teach arthroscopy to the five orthopedic surgeons there. We need your prayers and financial support to ensure the success of this and the other MEMO Cuba endeavors.
Thanks for standing with us
Jerome Harvey
Why does God allow children to suffer was the question that hovered at the edges of my mind while I watched Children with cancer joyfully receive stuffed animals,balloons and other toys from our MEMO team, and members of the local Cuban church. The question receded as I watched sick children with so little, hugging their new soft furry friends and I realized we are called to be part of the answer. It wasn't much, but at least it was something.
Our visit to the Santa Clara Childrens hospital cancer ward was just one aspect of our March MEMO Cuba Partnership Team visit. Paul and Denise Heinrichs and their two children Rochelle and Calvin, joined with Ron Jason an IT teacher at a Thunder Bay Collage and me to pursue two new exciting initiatives MEMO is pursuing in collaberation with local Placetas officials.
Paul a civil engineer and Ron created plans of the exisiting Placetas hospital in order for a computer network for the hospital to be designed by our computer team back here in Thunder Bay. The municipality wants MEMO to provide hardware for computerization of all the health care facilities of Placetas. Amazingly God has provided all the computers, servers, UPS's and cable required for this monumental task. Working in collaberation with our Cuban computer experts is a whole new reality for our team but a wonderful opportunity. This really is a medical equipment modernization opportunity.
Can you imagine living in an place where no breast screening is available? Most cases of breast cancer have already spread before diagnosis. This horrible disease has become the focus of MEMO's latest intiative to modernize health care in Placetas. The Cuban Ministry of Health has designated an empty wing in an old maternity hospital in Placetas to be used as the breast screening clinic. With Pauls icad computer program we were able to design a breast screening facility that fits perfectly and adequately into the space we were given. Another MEMO miracle! MEMO will provide all the fixtures, furniture and mammography equipment for this clinic and the Cubans will run the screening program. You can contribute to this very important project by sending funds for shipping this material.
So far this year, we have shipped four containers of life saving and life enhancing equipment. Even something as simple as paper and file covers for patients charts brings an excited reaction bordering on worship.(We try to point out Who the real giver of gifts is). Filing cabinets, desks, lights, chairs though less exotic than laproscopes are all part of what makes a hospital liveable. Some are very practical like toilet tank valves and fittings to repair chronically leaking fixtures.
Our March 25th weekend Packing Party was especially exciting as we were joined by four Latin American friends from Toronto who wanted to be part of MEMO. Joel Bermudez is the son of a pastor we work with in Havana. He talked the others into driving for 16 hours to be part of what has done so much for his father personally and his fellow Cubans. They worked hard all day Saturday including TV interviews. On Sunday we all joined in for a lively Latin Gospel Church service. Real Cuban/Canadian solidarity!
And so as MEMO continues to move ahead at full speed we need your prayers, your volunteering(see our compassion projects) and your financial support. As you consider where best to put your compassion dollars we hope you will remember that MEMO Cuba has no highly paid executives or staff members, and we moniter all your donations to make sure medical equipment modernization is really occuring in Placetas.
Please feel free to contact us at any time Yours on behalf of our Cuban brothers and sisters.
Jerome Harvey M.D.
Hello to all our MEMO - Cuba supporters,
As I stood in the Placetas hospital ICU surrounded by very sick patients resting comfortably in modern beds with a variety of suction machines, pumps, moniters and other paraphenalia of a modern ICU I asked the ICU director what difference the new equipment was making. His answer brought tears to my eyes "Before MEMO most patients died here but now most live!" I must be a slow learner but it suddenly struck me"MEMO Cuba is making a difference" And not just saving lives but developing deep and abiding relationships of eternal significance.
Steve Neufeld just returned from Placetas and reports that the Cuban laboratory technitions got the "new" but errant laboratory we had set up for them running. Now Placetas can do the same lab tests that any modern lab in North America can do. This is particularly important for the care of critically ill patients in the ICU. Thanks to those of you who have donated money($1/test) to buy lab tests. Your gifts are saving lives.
January 21st saw over forty volunteers packing the first ocean container destined for Cuba in 2006. It contains the chemotherapy cabinet for the Children's Hospital in Santa Clara(see November's update) a highly prized Ultrasound machine for obstetrics and many other diagnostic needs. A complete commercial kitchen to replace Placetas infamous oil fired smoking stove. And literally over a thousand items to bring comfort.care and cure to suffering Cubans. Even the Arnold Bros transport driver Doug was happy to be helping a load of love on its way to Cuba.
What else is coming up?
In the planning stages, with a volunteer team of computer specialists to collaborate with the Cubans, we look forward to computerizing Placetas hospital. (A huge job)
We are also in the preliminary stages of developing a comprehensive breast cancer care program for the municipality of Placetas. Part of this will include mobile breast screening. At present there is no mammograpy available in Placetas. (Also a huge job)
We need your continued interest, prayers and support. We are so thankful to have you with us as we attempt to make a physical and spiritual difference in this suffering world.
We will keep you posted.
Jerome Harvey M.D. CEO MEMO
Happy new year to all our supporters and interested friends.
May 2006 be a satisfying and productive time for you. The big news up date to give you is about our very successful Medical/team visit to Placetas at the beginning of December 2005 This team of eleven volunteers had four objectives:
1. To mentor Cuban surgeons in performing laproscopic surgury in Placetas. 2. To establish a modern laboratory to support the modernized hospital.
3. To minister to sick children.
4. To meet with government officials for future plans of MEMO.
I will let Shannon Moise the wife of surgeon Rocky (See photo gallery) tell you about it in her own words.
"A visit to the operating room has been on my personal goal list for ten years. In spite of my severe gag reflex to anything bloody, oozing, or smelly, I believed I could persevere if given the opportunity to watch my husband operate. The surgeons of Placetas gave me that opportunity, without having to count backwards from 100.
On this day, the O.R. was a very exciting place. As Charles, the Cuban biotech engineer said, “This is an historical day in Placetas - the first laparoscopic surgery will be performed!”.
The small O.R. was bustling with 25 people watching my husband Rocky, make the first incision. Dr. Jerome Harvey, MEMO’s founder, was nervously looking on. Jerome had orchestrated a monumental effort in making this day happen, and the weight on his shoulders was palpable. All the lost or broken equipment had been fixed, found or rigged, and the ability to perform the first case was nothing short of a miracle. Rocky was his usual relaxed self, as the crammed audience of doctors, nurses, a secretary and even the cleaning staff were riveted to the laparoscopic monitor.
The case went perfectly. The O.R. erupted in cheers, and Dr. Harvey smiled and breathed deep. It was my second privilege that day, to witness his dream come to fruition.
The team camaraderie on this mission trip and the warmth and spirit of the Cuban people was a blessing to me. My bags were lighter on the trip home, but I definitely left Cuba with much more than I’d arrived with."
The advent of laproscopic surgury in Placetas means patients have almost no pain and recover in days rather than weeks after surgury. Kim Joiner a Canadian laproscopic nurse and Ross Joiner her anaesthetist husband rounded out the team and insured the Cuban nurses and anaesthetists were well oriented to the demands of the new procedures.
The second objective was to set up a modern laboratory. We were able to carry a complete laboratory in our checked luggage. Mabel Lyons struggled for four days to get the computerized machines up and running but to no avail. We are continueing to work on this. Mabel's example of persistence and patience in the face of adversity was a great encouragement to the Cuban laboratory technitions who face frustration everyday. Mabel and her husband donated a wonderful laboratory microscope to replace the worn out one. In her honour they have named the new microscope "Little Mabel!"
The third objective was beautifully carried out by Melanie Esau as a clown along with her lovely assistants. They visited the childrens ward at Placetas as well as the cancer ward at the Childrens hospital in Santa Clara. They were able to bring a little happiness to these children with clowning and gifts of stuffed animals, balloons, crayons etc. Simple things but a lot when you have nothing.
And finally We met with local, provincial and national, Ministry of Health officials. We are still in their "good books" The provincial minister of health very kindly told us we are not just collegues but good friends. The Cuban government continues to be totally cooperative and give us every assistance they can. For this we are very thankful.
As I look back at 2005 a great deal was accomplished thanks to you our supporters. Our debt of $70,000 for shipping was paid off. Four technical assistance teams paid there own way to provide help and encouragement in making sure the equipment we send is used to its fullest potential. This is a very unique component of MEMO's work. We have collected a further 6 containerfuls of hospital equipment and furnishings and have enough money to ship three.
What are our plans(God willing) for 2006?
- To pack and ship a container on Jan 21/22, another February 18/19 and another March 11/12. As funds are available to continue shipping equipment we have on hand and may receive.
- To provide repair parts and consumables, particularly for the xray department of Placetas and the laboratory.
- To pursue our compassion ministries: Collecting ostomy supplies, DOLLs for sick children, Linens for beds and supporting our home for the forgotten elderly.
- To continue to send teams to make sure our donations are useful.
MEMO is not just something you can give money to. You can be physically involved in packing ocean containers. You can make dolls for children, you can collect bedding for packing and eventually for hospital beds in Cuba, and extremely important for those who suffer such social stigma, you can become the person in your community who collects redundant ostomy supplies. Contact us if you want to make your 2006 a "satisfying and productive year"
Yours on behalf of our suffering Cuban brothers and sisters
Jerome Harvey, M.D.CEO MEMO