Hey Fam!
Well I’m back in Uganda again, and back in my home away from home Soroti. As I sit in the new NICU that opened about 5 months ago I’m reminded of God’s faithfulness. It’s good to look back on where the Lord has brought you from. When heather and I first came to Soroti in August 2016 we had a single room with 2 radiant warmers that were not functioning, 2 isolettes (incubators) that were from about 1982 (so older then me and heather!) that no one knew how to work, and no monitors or oxygen or dedicated NICU staff! The door and window to the room was kept shut to prevent bugs and infection. Which made is sweltering hot, and the old isolettes running 24/7 didn’t help with the heat, (they eventually all broke down due to over heating) and one term baby who had lost oxygen during delivery but was improving.
So we set about cleaning everything, making sure it was all working and training the maternity staff on how to work it all. We found an old pulse oximeter to check oxygen levels but it would over heat and shut off every so often. We shared the oxygen saturator with the rest of the small hospital, but that would also shut off every once in a while when it got over heated.
Heather and I in our original NICU when we borrowed an IV pump for a week.
We were praying that people would hear about the new NICU and that we would begin to get some prematures admitted.
Fast forward a few months. And the NICU babies began to be admitted we had some successes and some that we were unable to save, but word began to spread that some of our prematures were surviving. That gave hope to the local community as most premature infants would die shortly after birth! We still get updates from our our first few babies and they are all growing and doing well.
Our first set of twins they weighed about 3lbs
This is the same twins last September and they are now afraid of me hah
Heather with her namesake our 1st 900gm baby (about 2 lbs) we still get updates from her mom and she is doing well.
Dr Elizabeth Emuku our dear friend, who is the owner of the hospital along with her husband Dr Juventine Emuku, is the Dr in charge of the NICU. She has really poured her heart and soul into this place and made it what is today. Today we have our own small building with a 1 room for prematures with 4 isolettes and 4 full fledged monitors.
A second large room for full term babies who can be in an open crib. Those have portable monitors. We also have 2 private rooms that each have monitors and isolettes. In the reception area we have a central monitor where we can see each babies vitals on one screen. We have 6 IV pumps, a vein finding light, and Oxygen and medical air are currently in the process of being installed. We also have 3 midwives that are our very own NICU staff! We have been working with one of them since 2016 and the other two were hired on our last trip here in December 2018! (We are praying that the Lord provides the funds for more staff) It really has come a long way! Don’t get me wrong there are still a lot of struggles and things do not run perfectly. Things can still be discouraging and frustrating when you consider how a NICU is run in the US. We do the best we can with what we have, and babies are given a chance to live!
A quick look inside our new NICU
This is one of our current little guys and he is a little over 2 lbs 🙂
Right now we have a mother who lost 6 previous babies from miscarriages and this one was born premature. He is doing well so far and about to discharge tomorrow. She calls him her miracle baby, and that he is!
God has been good to this little NICU in this little town of Soroti, Uganda, and it is good to remember that! He has provided in many ways and we are grateful! I just wanted to share the goodness of the Lord today! Praying you all are blessed and know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge! Love you all!
-Courtney
choosingthatbetterpart 