Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Thank you for all your birthday best wishes and comments. We celebrated the Friday the 13th beginning the day before at 0400 with a c-section then driving to Moundou and doing 2 fracture femur intramedullary nails then driving back to Bere after dark through all the ox carts, stalled vehicles, pedestrians, goats, cows, etc arriving in Bere about 2100 and had an OB waiting that had a transverse lie presentation and baby had huge hydrocephalus so a c-section. Then Friday at 0400 had a difficult forceps delivery with baby with abnormally large head compared to rest of body and also a heart problem murmur and died some hours later. Friday was a normal day otherwise. Dolores made a birthday cake and supper and had invited some people over in the late afternoon. At midnight was called for another OB with breech presentation but her 5th pregnancy and by 0300 she had delivered twins normally. Sat morning at 0730 went out to a branch Sab School in the car then it would not start so had to call Dolores to come pick us up with the pickup. The alternator had quit so jump charged the car battery enough to get it back to Bere. (The alternator is now taken off to get repaired in Moundou hopefully) Then at about1000 did a strangulated hernia that required some bowel resection for some dead intestine. It has been relatively quiet since then. We had 3 bowel resections recently, one for intussisseption, one for a resectable cancer, and one for a strangulated hernia with dead intestine. We have had two nonresectable bladder cancers this week. Zach is in NDJ to pick up a new nurse volunteer from Walla Walla, Washington this weekend. Today they called from Moundou wanting me to come do 3 more fracture repairs. Don't know what they are yet. Maybe go there tomorrow Sunday. I don't like to leave Bere uncovered surgery wise. May Psalms 139:23,24 be the prayer of each of us. Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com. 
Love, 
Rollin and Dolores Bland 
Hopital Adventiste de Bere 
Boite Postal 52 
Kelo, Tandjile, Chad, Afrique 
Blog www.weareamissionarybland.blogspot.com

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Juniper Belle Netteburg

It's a girl. Juniper Belle Netteburg 7 lb 14.3oz born 2:12 pm Nov 8 in Springfield, Mass USA to Danae and Olen Netteburg but we had to wait until now for the name. I think the pictures and comments will be well posted on Facebook. Of course she is beautiful.
We believe in equality of the sexes. Each one of our children has a boy and a girl except Danae now has two boys and two girls. Now we have 10 grandchildren with 5 boys and 5 girls ages new born to 22 yr.

Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com.
Love, Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile, Chad, Afrique
www.weareamissionarybland.blogspot.com


Sunday, November 8, 2015

We have been back in Bere a little over 2 weeks. All seems quiet and safe around here although a few days ago there was another Boko Harem attack north of Ndjamena by Lake Chad that killed one person. We are a long way from that. The main problem has been the rats that seem to have tried to take over our house while we were gone. They chewed through the mesh that was supposed to let in air ventilation along the roof which they somehow managed to get to. They don't seem to be eating the poison very much yet and they are pretty smart about traps although we have caught two or three. 
 
Halloween which celebrates the Devil's day was a busy night here. We had a strangulated hernia in a 2 year old, a urinary retention, a c-section for a very small pelvis. Then they brought in a boy that had an open fracture femur for 9 days that was infected and he had tetanus. We put in a pin in his leg for traction to try to stretch out his thigh muscles but the tetanus prevented that working very well. It was difficult to get enough diazepam and anti-toxin given so he still had tetany much of the time. Unfortunately the family decided to take him back home after 2 days and let him die there. Two nights ago was similar with a breech delivery at 2200 then a difficult forceps delivery at 0130 then an ectopic pregnancy with lots of blood in abdomen that came in and we did surgery at 0300. Actually these 2 early am patients were referred from another hospital. Another day we had a lady with preeclampsia that the 4 month fetus died so tried to induce delivery. She had some pain and also wanted a tubal ligation or hysterectomy. She was not progressing at all so opened her and found a ruptured uterus so a c-section and hysterectomy was done and she has done well post op. We had a bowel resection for dead bowel about 1 meter from the volvulus that was doing well next day then suddenly short of breath and died maybe from a pulmonary embolus or ? So not everything goes well. We have lots of hernias and prostatectomies.

We don't have any student missionaries or other volunteers since the US State Dept advisory in Sept that US citizens should evacuate from Chad because of increased danger but this changed after 3 weeks to the same advisory as before, to "avoid high population areas and markets," etc. We think it is as safe here as a lot of other big cities. We are hoping for some volunteers to come and do some plumbing and electric work. 
 
Pray that Matt 24:14 will be fulfilled here as well as the rest of the world so that Jesus can come and take His children home. 
 
Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com
Love
Rollin and Dolores Bland
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile, Chad, Afrique