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This fall, a new cohort of medical interns started at the hospital. One of them is Dr. Dua from Sudan. She’s also lived in Saudia Arabia and Egypt. We were chatting at the nurses’ station one morning, and I was asking her all sorts of questions about what it’s like where she’s lived before and how she came to be in Rwanda. She shared about why she went to medical school in Sudan and how she couldn’t intern there because of the war. Her personal story is full of bravery and taking chances, but one part of it stuck out in relation to patient care. She was talking about being a medical student in Sudan and feeling intimidated by the nurses. She said one day a man came into the ward with a terrible, infected wound on his leg. He appeared homeless and had no insurance. Without insurance, the hospital would not provide him with medical care. He said to her, “I know you will not take care of my wound, but will you please only get me a glass of water.” Dr. Dua had compassion on him and as she handed him a glass of water, a nurse in the ward said to her, “Take this man out. He has no insurance.” Dr. Dua said after that she walked the man to the hospital gate and then found somewhere to cry. We can relate to that feeling of helplessness. To the moral injury of watching someone suffer and knowing in your bones that it is wrong but not being able to help. We are limited in our resources at Kibogora and still face similar feelings when we can’t provide patients the level of care they would recieve in more developed parts of the world, but never will we turn someone away because they do not have insurance. A little boy from Uganda, two years old, named Junior, with a deep burn down to his bone on his lower leg presented to our hospital a few weeks before Dr. Dua told me her story. Both of his parents abandoned him and his uncle is caring for him. Rwanda has universal healthcare that citizens can enroll in, but Junior is a citizen of Uganda. He has no insurance, but because of social programs, donations, and international partners, the hospital is able to offer Junior all the resources they have. He can have his wound dressed, receive antibiotics and pain medicine, be seen by a surgeon and a pediatrician, receive blood products, nutritional supplements, etc. His care is complex but possible at Kibogora. Can you imagine if he went somewhere else and was turned away? We are so thankful Kibogora Hospital has the means to provide care to patients, whether they have insurance or not. And we see Jesus in that. How Christlike to care for the needy and the poor and the sick and to offer them what you have, to reach out and provide healing. This is the church at work, caring for God’s people.
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