Attached is picture of ambulance donated by city of Oakridge, OR and shipped by Dr. Ellen Heinitz, Grants Pass, OR, to Democratic Republic of Congo. The ambulance arrived and the following is a note from Dr. Ysu in Congo regarding their first use of the ambulance as a mobile clinic. Southtowne helped stock the ambulance with medical supplies and later helped with beds and other equipment for a small hospital. We also helped with a 40 foot container shipment of supplies and equipment that was shipped a few weeks ago. Dr. Ellen expects to be in the Congo when the shipment arrives in a few weeks.
Dr. Ysu’s letter:
“I chose an area called Joli Site for our first medical excursion. I know the area well enough and through my little investigation, I found that proper health structures are not available. But that’s really not my reason for picking that community. The ulterior motive is just to provide care to people who otherwise wouldn’t get it. And making it free consultation, free meds, $5 for ultrasound that’s a package no one could pass! So, they came by hundreds. We were only able to see about 70. We arrived at 9h20. A few minutes for setup and we started the work with great excitement. The pictures you see are before we started. But as the day went by, the message was going farther and farther. More and more people were coming. Children, women, men of all ages came. We saw interesting cases especially with the ultrasound. Some hernias, ovarian cysts, prostate hyperplasia, splenomegaly, gastric ulcers. We couldn’t see all the people and we stopped at 5h30pm. Some were disappointed but we promised a comeback. I was told to expect more people next time. People came from farther than where the event took place. I really thought we would find 10 or if more just 20! I see that there is work to do and love to practice!”