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Isabella, a shy two year old girl, never had
a normal childhood. She had developed a tumor in her kidney that
had rapidly grown causing her abdomen to distend unusually. Her
parents had gone from one hospital to another in order to seek medical
attention for their child, but had always been turned away due to a lack
of finances. In one last attempt to save their daughter's life,
they approached the Coptic Hospital. Isabella had just been
discharged from a major hospital to die at home, and they had nowhere
else to go. The Coptic Hospital agreed to operate on the child
through the Surgical Hope Fund, and today, Isabella is a happy, normal
child, undergoing chemotherapy also sponsored by the Fund.
During our
many years of practice in surgery, we have encountered many cases which
needed urgent surgical care and life saving operations which the
patients and their families were unable to afford. After many of
them would listen to the consequences of postponing the operation, they
would then thank the doctor and inform him they needed to raise the
funds, but would never return.
The
stories abound. A thirty-five year old woman diagnosed with breast
cancer, searches for money for four months in order to perform a
mastectomy. Unable to pay for the expenses, she never returns for
the life saving procedure, and with each day that the cancer spreads,
her condition becomes increasingly inoperable. Another sad store,
a twenty-year old refugee, a musician by profession, suffering from an
intestinal obstruction has been deathly sick for ten days. He
comes to see the doctor with a distended abdomen, and his only hope is
an immediate laparatomy. He dies while looking for the funds to
undergo the operation.
Many of
the cases that have been referred to the Coptic Hospital have been due
to the overcrowding and inability of local hospitals to accommodate
numerous surgical cases. As a result, the church introduced the
idea of the Surgical Hope Fund that would greatly subsidize the
patient's costs. If the outstanding amount was still unattainable,
the Surgical Fund would cover the entire sum.
In
addition, the Fund also organizes surgical camps in remote branches of
Kenya in order to intercept patients with these circumstances and bring
them back to the hospital to be operated on, free of charge. The
Fund can even cover the transportation costs for those who need surgery
but cannot afford the traveling fees. The Coptic hospital is also
equipped to provide medical aid and surgeons to remote and often
under-stocked hospitals.
The Coptic
Hospital has also invited many senior surgeons from the United States
who have volunteered their time and services free of charge to perform
highly specialized surgeries. Our ultimate goal for the St. Mary
Surgical Hope Fund is to increase our capacity; reaching and sponsoring
more needy patients.
Supporting
the Fund will provide resources that allow life-changing and life-saving
surgeries, restoring hope into the lives of many people, and the lives
of those around them.
You
may find detailed information about these services at the website
http://www.copticmission.org
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