On Call Newsletter

Stories of how your support helps us to "bind up wounds and bring healing to the brokenhearted"

Click on the newsletter image to read or download the latest edition of On Call

On Call is a quarterly publication from World Medical Mission written to those who support our work with doctors and dentists in hospitals around the world. In each issue we include stories of how your support helps us to "bind up wounds and bring healing to the brokenhearted." You can also see a list of mission hospitals asking for help and consider volunteering your services if you are a doctor in one of the listed specialties. Read each issue here by downloading the Adobe pdf file.

From the latest On Call:

Healing for Haiti

A team of surgeons treated a man with multiple injuries at Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital

The day after Haiti was leveled by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, Samaritan's Purse medical advisor Dr. David Gettle arrived in Port-au-Prince to begin coordinating an emergency medical response. We quickly teamed up with the staff at Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital and started bringing in Christian medical professionals to help treat hundreds of severely injured earthquake survivors.

"I've provided medical aid following many disasters, but this is some of the worst I've seen," Dr. Gettle said. "The wounded and sick are coming to us by the busloads." Mattresses lined hallway floors, and every spare room was filled with extra beds as more than 300 people were admitted to the 100-bed hospital. Physicians and nurses worked around the clock, repairing broken bones and treating life-threatening internal injuries.

A team of chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was also on hand to share the Gospel. They comforted hundreds of people who were physically broken and emotionally scarred after seeing children, spouses, relatives, and neighbors die when homes and buildings collapsed.

Medical teams helped treat more than 4,000 patients in less than 21 days following the quake. Faith, prayer, and the proclamation of the Gospel brought hope and peace into the midst of overwhelming need and suffering. Dr. Greg Alty operated on a young Christian woman named Katiana, whose life was in danger.

“Her injuries are extensive, painful, and continue to be life-threatening, even though the operation was successful,” Dr. Alty wrote in a letter he sent to his church in Lynchburg, Virginia. “She is so grateful for the Christian love she has received from her brothers and sisters ministering as doctors and nurses. When she is conscious, she never ceases to ask everyone she sees if they know Jesus. Then she asks to pray with and for us.”

A second medical response was coordinated to help meet the needs of families living in Cite Soleil, the poorest slum area in Port-au-Prince. Samaritan’s Purse helped remove rubble and refurbish a clinic on the compound of a local church. The medical team began treating more than 100 patients a day.

“Every day we arrive to long lines of patients waiting in front of our clinic in Cite Soleil,” said Debbie Sawvel, a pharmacist who joined the team with her husband, Dr. John Sawvel. “The conditions here are getting worse and we are seeing many malnourished and very ill people. There is much suffering and the approaching rainy season will only make things worse.”

Samaritan’s Purse will continue to respond to medical needs in Haiti by sending personnel, equipment, and supplies.

“These people had very little to begin with, now many of them have absolutely nothing,” said Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham. “I want the people of Haiti to know that God has not forgotten them, He loves them, and He cares for them. We want to do all we can to help them, and do it in the Name of Jesus Christ.”