Four years ago, Dr. Robert Hewes traveled to Kosrae with a medical team from Kettering.  He worked in the village clinics providing primary health care.

But Dr. Hewes' expertise is radiology.  He returned with a desire and a vision to help the x-ray technicians in Kosrae in their interpretation of x-rays.  He also felt that the island doctors could benefit from an education program that focused on ultrasound interpretation.

After speaking to the island health officials about this program, we were asked to teach in Kosrae and Pohnpei.  Dr. Hedson wrote:

"Thank you very much for all your heartfelt assistance to us out here. I have read your notes with much enthusiasm!  It is actually no better time to do a Ultrasound training now than before.. simply because, each physician do their own interpretations of their ultrasound  findings - wrong or right, who knows!!"

The radiology education team started out in Pohnpei teaching a group of doctors, midwives, OB nurses and x-ray technicians. The team was also planning to set up and use an $80,000 ultrasound machine that Keckler Medical Co. donated and Canvasback had shipped out. However, when the machine arrived in Kosrae it was missing a power cord. Without the cord, the team would be unable to set it up and make sure it was working properly before they left the island.

Jacque Spence tells what happened next:

"At first I fretted, but I just kept praying. I felt sure the Lord had an answer. After our team prayed together, the ultrasound tech. shared the problem with the manager of our little 12-room hotel. He said, 'The man you need to speak with just walked in.'

"'The man' was John - an American electrician who comes to service and calibrate the power plant in Kosrae. His last visit was four years ago. We told him our problem and he came up to the hospital and wired the ultrasound with another power cord."

In actuality, what we found was in Pohnpei, they didn't know how to use the ultrasound and didn't know how to interpret the findings.  

In fact, sonographer and educator Susan Price said that she did an ultrasound on two patients who were pregnant and the ultrasound indicated the babies were in distress.  The medical officers in Pohnpei didn't know how valuable an ultrasound machine could be as a diagnostic tool.

In a country where there is a high percentage of diabetic patients, the babies tend to be rather large.  In one case, the ultrasound indicated the baby was too large and that there was very little amniotic fluid.  A C-Section was immediately scheduled.

In the second case, the ultrasound detected twins, who were also in distress.  A C-section saved their lives.

"We felt so blessed to have been in Pohnpei," Jacque said. "We felt the Lord had brought the team just in time save these babies and those to come in the future."

The Miracle Stretcher

While preparing to join the radiology team in Pohnpei, Lauren Petford experienced yet another miracle.

Every ambulance needs a stretcher, but the one that she helped Canvasback ship to Pohnpei in June did not come equipped with one. They are very expensive, and after unsuccessfully beating the bushes to get one donated, Lauren had become discouraged.

"I prayed about it and gave it to God," Lauren says. "I didn't want to go to Pohnpei without a stretcher."

The same day, at a local retirement home, the head nurse was looking in a storage closet and mentioned out loud that they needed to get rid of an ambulance stretcher that had only been used once. An employee that had been at church the week before and had heard about the need mentioned it to Lauren.

Of course Lauren went over to pick up the stretcher, then went straight to the airport to see if they would check in such a large article. Not only did they check it in, they waived the excess baggage fees!

The day she arrived in Pohnpei, Lauren wrote triumphantly: "Everyone here is beaming about the new ambulance. They even picked us up from the airport in it, and today it received a new stretcher! I had tears in my eyes knowing all that transpired to get the ambulance there. The stretcher was God's finishing touch."

Proud of the new ambulance are (from left): Mary Lou Hawley, MPH,
Chief of Primary Health Care; Dr. Elizabeth Keller, Chief of Medicine
for Pohnpei Hospital; Lauren Petford, R.N., Canvasback medical team coordinator; and Wincemer David, Chief of the Division of
Administration and Development, Pohnpei Dept. of Health Services

Locating a stretcher to go with the ambulance for
Pohnpei was "God's finishing touch" says Petford.

Finding Weljohn

While in Pohnpei, Lauren decided to follow up on  , whom she met the previous year Weljohn Biliman when she helped to deliver a hospital bed to him in his parents’ small home. Weljohn had been paralyzed for 14 years and had been sleeping on a cement floor.

She and Dr. Hewes had quite an adventure locating him, but it was worth the effort.

"We found Weljohn very happy and still in the bed that we gave him," she said. "He has also been able to use the wheelchair we gave him and he can visit his brother not far away. His daughter has dedicated this year to taking care of him and has postponed returning to school. The picture of Jesus we sent hangs in his aged parents’ home. They are all Christians and our God is their God too.

"His smile says it all," she said.