I knew that leaving Shisong would be difficult, but it is not easy to describe that in a blog post. The last week there was busy. We operated on six patients, all of whom were doing well at last report. One woman came from Nigeria after having been refused surgery in Dubai. Moving back home and into my job here went fairly smoothly, but processing my time in Shisong was a little more challenging. My thanks to all who are so supportive both while I am there and while I am here.
Sister Jethro and Doctor Sister Helen were in the US for 3 weeks in July and August to attend the Cameroonian Professional Society annual meeting in Houston on August 1-2. They spent time in Lacrosse, WI on July 20, spend 2 days in Rochester on July 28 and 29 where they visited the University of Rochester Medical Center and spoke at my home parish of St. Marianne Cope in Rush, NY, then on to Houston and Dallas, and finally to Washington, DC. Please pray that the many contacts that they made lead to collaborators in advancing cardiac care in Africa and serving the poor. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of them speaking in Rochester but here they are at Niagara Falls where we made a brief stop:
In October, I will spend about 2.5 weeks in Shisong giving anesthesia for cardiac surgery. Fr. Herald Brock, CFR, from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, will also visit the Cardiac Centre during this time. We are hoping that Franciscan Mission Outreach will be able to assist us in fundraising to improve the access of cardiac surgery to the poor in Cameroon and the surrounding area. Fr. Herald has done much work with the poor in Honduras and in what is now South Sudan, and we are very grateful for his support of this work in Shisong. You can visit him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/franciscanmissionoutreach.
