What Will $100 Buy at Soddo Christian Hospital?
Getting lost in all the talk about Obamacare and health insurance? Want to see some real information on what we can do with $100?
Soddo Christian Hospital is saving lives in southern Ethiopia, and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism and discipleship. A hundred bucks will go a long way in our hospital! Here are a few examples:
- An appendectomy for $100?? You bet. In the US, it costs around $30,000 to take out the old appendix. But here, we do it for around $100. This is a pretty common malady, especially among young people. And it's a "bread-and-butter" surgery that our residents need to learn.
- Sometimes a surgery isn't needed. We see a lot of pediatric patients that just need some antibiotics and to drink plenty of fluids. They might have a mild pneumonia or a little gastrointestinal illness. Also, we sit and talk with mom about what's going on. (Doesn't sound novel, but in this culture, parents don't often get a lot of information about what's going on.) In the US, just one trip to the doctor with your kid would cost $100. But in Soddo, we can see about 20 patients for that.
- If admission to the hospital is required, we can do that. We have over 100 beds for inpatient care of all types - pediatric, adult, medical, surgical, obstetric, and the list goes on. In some countries, a hundred dollars wouldn't even pay for 3 hours of care. At Soddo Christian Hospital, that will cover more than 3 days of inpatient care.
- Having a baby? A hundred dollars will pay for a Cesarean section and the associated care... completely! In the West, this would cost $5,000. We can do 50 C-sections for that. In this country, women die during childbirth due to inability to get a C-section. Not long ago, an Ethiopian woman had a 1 in 15 chance of dying in childbirth. Now, it's down to 1 in 67 because of improving health care. (But still a long way from the rate in the US: 1 in 2,400).
- We are passionate about teaching. We believe that medical mission hospitals have a duty to train the next generation of providers in the country they serve. And we are doing just that. We have residents and medical students working and learning at the hospital, and all being influenced by the Gospel during their time here. For a hundred dollars, we can provide medical textbooks and learning materials for one of those residents to use. That's the gift that keeps on giving.
We have begun our 100 for 100 campaign, and these are just a few examples of what that hundred bucks will buy! We are looking for 100 donors to the hospital Benevolent Fund to cover costs of care for our poorest patients. The pledge is 100 bucks a month for a year. And you can rest assured that one hundred percent of your gift will go to fund patient care!
