While touring the hospital I was amazed at both the physical condition of the hospital as well as the lack of supplies and equipment. The week I toured the hospital a med student staying at the mission house I was at was following the doctor for an internship. During 72 hours of his internship he witnessed the doctor having to choose life and death for two newborn babies, not because of untreatable causes, but because of lack of equipment and supplies by not only their hospital, but also the main city hospital of Honduras. The babies needed a ventilator to assist with their breathing. The hospital in La Esperanza has no ventilators. The hospital in Tegucigalpa (a city of more than a million people) has 4 infant ventilators. The city hospital could only take one infant so the doctor had to choose which baby to send and which baby to keep- knowing the baby not chosen could not survive on its own without the ventilator. The doctor chose to keep the healthiest baby, hoping it would make it with the limited oxygen supplies the hospital has. The baby died within 24hours. The hospital staff makes these kinds of decisions on a daily basis since they do not have the funds to acquire proper equipment.

Our hospitals in the United States lose babies and people all of the time. The difference is that these deaths do not occur due to lack of equipment or supplies. No doctor, nurse, or hospital should be without proper equipment and supplies. My heart aches for the people of Honduras and for the medical staff that is doing all it can do to give hope and life to its people.

I left Honduras with a passion and plan to acquire equipment, supplies, funding, construction crews, medical teams and whatever necessary teaching/training needed for the hospital and people of La Esperanza. We have put together a video of the hospital and two pages of needs for the L&D and Nursery of La Esperanza. We returned to Merci International with a construction crew in November, 2006, as well as many more times over the next few years. This is not a short term project. It will require long-term teaching and training as well as many teams to perform construction needs along with medical teams to provide equipment and training to use and maintain the equipment.

Your prayers and assistance are greatly requested. There are needs for the equipment, supplies, construction materials, teaching, shipping of the supplies and equipment, and guidance that we will do Gods will!

Watch our slide show and experience the need.