Med Evac Flights

Kevin talking to Rita Chapman about the situation
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Last week, Kevin was able to do a Med Evac flight. It was for a 12-year-old girl (Masha) who had developed an infection on her left shin (tibia). Back in February, she noticed her leg had started to swell. Her family did what they could by treating her with indigenous medicine. Unfortunately, the medicines could not help the infection, which made it appear worse than before.  So her family took her to the local hospital in Kikongo. The hospital was now afraid to do anything because they feared the infection had spread into the bone. She was in a lot of pain and was no longer able to walk. The hospital in Kikongo was not able to do much for the young girl, so a local missionary family (the Chapmans) arranged for MAF to do a flight to bring the girl out.

Masha (in red) waiting to board the airplane
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Kevin flew the young girl and her mother out to the missionary hospital in Vanga where they were able to take X-rays of her leg (x-rays in the bush of Africa, how cool is that!). The x-rays confirmed that the infection had indeed spread throughout the entire bone, which was now also broken in multiple places as a result of the weakness from the infection. She was now at a high risk for losing her leg. The local missionary, Dr. Tim Rice, said they would try to do surgery this week on her leg to see if it can be saved.

Dr. Rice praying with Masha
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Then two days later, MAF received another call for a 15 year old boy named Plamedie with another open ulcer on his leg. He had been living with an open sore on his leg for 3 years, but had been reasonably well looked after and wasn’t as serious as the little girl. He still required medical attention, so Kevin flew him and his father out to Vanga as well. Dr. Rice informed Plamedie that his x-rays looked good and that he expected him to make a full recovery without surgery.

Plamedie looking at his x-rays
(Photo courtesy of Mark & Kelly Hewes, used with permission)

Please pray for these young children who risked losing their legs to infections that could have possibly been treated with over the counter products found in a local pharmacy, but are not available to those living in remote villages. I will post updates when we find out more information about Masha's situation and Plamedie's recovery. 

***Update 8 November 2015***
Plamedie is in his home village recovering quite well.
Masha's surgery went well but she is still at a risk of losing her leg. Prospects are looking better for her but she is not out of the woods yet. 

This Is Why We Are Here

We have been back in Congo for almost a week. Nearly over jet lag, I returned to the hangar on Monday.  Our team gathered like normal on Monday morning for scripture, prayer, and time talking about the upcoming week. The Cessna 182 has quite a few flights coming up in the next few weeks and not enough pilots, so I was needed to hop back into the pilot’s seat immediately.  But because it had been 3 months since I had flown this airplane, and six months since my last flight review, I needed a flight review with one of our MAF instructor pilots. This is something all of our pilots do every six months (or more if we fly multiple airplanes). An instructor rides along with us, observing us during a normal flight. Then, after we drop our passengers off, we will go out and practice special maneuvers and simulate emergencies to make sure we are on top of our game. Because I had done quite a bit of flying while back in the States there wasn't much to it, just remembering some of the intricacies and quirks of this particular aircraft.

The flight went great and we returned back to home base just before sunset. The following morning I had a trip carrying long time missionary Jim Smith (age 70) back to his home in Nkara from furlough in the States. Together, he and his wife Nancy run Laban Ministries which operates a bible training school and a Christian radio station which has more listeners than any other radio station in this area of the Congo.  We had to wait out some morning weather before departing on the nearly two hour flight, but just before we departed I noticed another cell forming just east of the area to which we would be flying. There were several alternate airstrips along the way, so I decided to continue but turn around if necessary. About 30 miles from our destination, we noticed the partly cloudy skies below us had turned to mostly overcast. I found a hole and circled down below the cloud deck. We passed over our refueling stop and continued onward. The clouds were about 2,000 feet above the ground and the visibility was dropping due to rain showers and haze, but still OK. About 5 minutes away from our destination the visibility had dropped to around 2 miles - if it continued to deteriorate, I would turn around. I was concerned that we were approaching the cell that was growing on the satellite image I saw in the morning. Finally, I saw the airstrip, radioed in, completed the checklist and made a non-eventful landing. Not wanting to stick around to see if the supposed cell would intensify, I quickly offloaded the baggage, said goodbye to the passenger, and proceeded to my refueling stop 23 miles away. Amazingly, the rain and the haze had disappeared in the time I was on the ground. I thought to myself, this is why we are here. Supporting and encouraging missionaries and providing them safe transportation.

After I made it to Vanga and refueled, I began loading the cargo for the return trip and was handed the manifest. I saw I had medical passengers, one whose weight suggested he was grown and one who would obviously be a child. Their destination was Kikongo, which happens to be one of our other frequent stops. Frequently we take medical patients to Vanga, which has one of the better hospitals in the region, despite the fact it is 200 miles into the interior. Rarely do we take patients from Vanga, as once they are healthy enough to leave, they typically return by a slower means to their village. I called for the passengers and saw that the child was the patient. She was small, only weighing around 30 pounds and couldn't speak well, so I guessed her to be 3 or 4 years old, and was carried by her father. She had no hair and had a large and bulky bandage over her right eye. As they were being buckled in, I spent some time talking to the father about my two kids and asking him some questions about his family too. I asked about the nature of the injury. He responded she was six and had a particularly nasty cancer that affects an astounding number of children in the area. The doctor had released them because there was nothing else that could be done. She didn't have much time left and they wanted to send the child back to her home. My heart broke and tears started to well up. I spent a little extra time praying with them before we took off, laying hands on both of them. The weather was fine, some small low clouds, but mostly clear. No rain, easy navigation and the trip was short, only about 40 minutes. Yet, it was the most difficult flight of my life. After we landed, I prayed with my precious cargo again and I thought to myself, now this is why we are here.

Vanga Vision Trip

Since I am not a pilot, I don't get to see all the neat things Kevin does. But MAF understands this and wants very much for the spouses to see the places their spouses fly into all the time. This is why they recommend a once a year "vision trip" so we can see MAF's vision for our home country for ourselves.

We chose to go to an old MAF base in Vanga, which is a little village of about 2,000 people. The slow pace of life was what I needed to see and felt at home. We visited the Vanga hospital, went down to the river, and made lots of new friends. I will do a blog post on the hospital another time, but for now, I wanted to show you some of my favorite trip photos.