New Operating Rooms at Kijabe Hospital for Bethany Kids

The main road that cuts right through the heart of Kenya starts at Mombassa on the coast and runs right through Nairobi, past Kijabe, and on into Uganda. It is four lanes around Nairobi but goes to two toward Kijabe. It is a paved road with its share of bumps and obstacles, but all things considered, fairly good. It is when you turn off this main road that things get interesting. When we turned off the main road to head into Kijabe, I couldn't help but notice that it was in fairly good shape. There were none of the massive holes and cracks to navigate. I found out that the reason for the decent shape of the road was because the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, had been down the road on an official visit to Kijabe hospital and the roads were attended to in preparation for his visit on October the 8th of this year. The reason for his visit? To officially open the new operating rooms at Kijabe Hospital and Bethany Kids!

The last time I was at Bethany you will remember I was in scrubs and in the operating room and recovery rooms. In fact, I think they used that photo of me in the recent Oakville Beaver article. While the state of the operating and recovery rooms did not look wonderful, the surgeons were still doing amazing things for the children. A renovation was needed though, and with the support of St. Vincent and other donors who contribute to Bethany Kids, renovations of the operating rooms and the addition of more were recently completed as officially marked by the President's visit.

These photos reveal changes that have occured at Bethany since my last visit. The operating room in the first picture is first rate, the second photo is of Dr. Newton, an anesthesiologist who works at Bethany and will be taking over the medical leadership now that Dr. Bransford is retiring. The third photo is of the recovery room where I was assisting with Dr. Bransford when he was attending to the young boy with the burn, and the last is a photo of the pediatric recovery room still in progress. I added that photo so I can share a story which I will get to in a few moments. The number of operating rooms has been doubled now to 8 in total - all completely renovated or brand new.

To put things in perspective, Nairobi Hospital has 20 operating rooms and twice the number of surgeons but Kijabe actually performs slightly more surgeries each day. The reason is that Nairobi is a government hospital and the doctors are paid only up to a certain amount no matter how many they do. Most only perform surgeries until noon and then have private practice in the afternoon to make more money. The doctors at Bethany Kids are physicians who have committed themselves to working for children and doing so as missionaries. Money is not a priority as much as serving as many children as they possibly can. The joke is - don't get sick and go into a government hospital in the afternoon because you're likely to get very inexperienced care. That comment reminds me of the story of the young girl with the amputated arm from my visit two years ago. She was in Nairobi general and they had set up a drip into the top of her hand but used the wrong drugs. Her arm started to go black and creep up her arm toward her torso and eventually her chest. Her mother took the tubes out of her arms and against the doctors advice, took her daughter and boarded a bus to Kijabe for the pediatric care there. The reputation of Bethany Kids is what made her make that choice and as a result, it likely saved her daughter's life, though they could not save the arm.
The hospital is quickly becoming a destination for teaching with pediatric surgical and anesthesiologist residents learning at Bethany Kids. Most pediatric orthopedic hospitals lack the expertise and experience with dealing with children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus. They are proud to be the only pediatric care hospital of its kind between Cairo and Capetown.

The inclusion of the photo of the doorway into the pediatric recovery room is to remind me to tell the story of the realities the doctors face. The neo-natal care unit requires a heater to keep the infants warm but the contractor responsible for doing the renovations was going to charge way too much to purchase and install so the doctors - lead by Dr. Newton - are going to do it themselves! Staying on top of the contractors as they worked through the renovations to make everything right for the doctors and patients was almost a full time job itself. The attention to detail and desire to create the best space possible has resulted in amazing changes in two short years.