God's Hidden Treasures
Medical Ministry
Stroke Rehabilitation
As Nita made home visits to wheelchair candidates, she saw the complete despair of the people who had experienced strokes. Few attempts were made to rehabilitate them and from the hospital they were sent home to die. In most cases, the only therapy provided was massage which did nothing to re-train healthy parts of the brain to take over for the damaged areas. As a result of this, a Stroke Rehabilitation Program was begun in October 2002.
This program, based on establishing personal relationships with the patients and their families and home visits by the medical staff, uses therapy items that are accessible and inexpensive.
Dr. Tamara Marshenko and physical therapist, Olya, work together to visit patients in their homes, doing therapy with the items pictured above. The entire family becomes involved and a journal is kept to track progress. At present there are more than 80 patients. Since the inception of this program many people have begun walking again, with the majority of the patients improving dramatically. The hospitals in the Bila Tserkva District now advise their stroke patients to contact our office for this help.
Diabetic Program
While visiting homes of the disabled, Nita found an extremely high rate of amputations, blindness, premature death and other maladies caused by diabetes and thus, this program was begun. We discovered that one of the main reasons for the lack of control of this disease is that patients are only tested once a month to see if their blood sugar levels are staying within normal range (normally diabetic patients on insulin are tested several times a day). This lack of testing resulted in the majority of diabetics taking an incorrect dose of insulin or, in some cases, nothing at all. As a result of this, our goal is to place a glucometer in the home of every diabetic and provide the necessary testing strips. As there are over 3,250 registered diabetics in the city, this is a long term goal (See “Sponsor-A-Family Program” for how you can help).
All active patients are visited, monitored and provided free in-home health care by our medical staff. Nita has met with the head endocrinologist of one of the main hospitals in Bila Tserkva to discover ways to work together to prevent premature death and amputation. As a result of these meetings, glucometers and testing strips were provided to 35 district doctors who go into homes to provide care. Armed with these glucometers, they can provide testing on the spot and identify diabetes in its early stages.
Mobile Medical Clinic
In December 2005 the decision was made to begin a new outreach—a mobile medical clinic—where we take our medical team of Dr. Tamara and nurse Olya, plus a prayer team to the 59 villages in the Bila Tserkva District of Ukraine. We began this outreach because we had seen so many premature deaths and other medical catastrophes in these villages due to inadequate medical care. Currently two villages a month are visited.
Working with the local government, we connect with the village clinics to schedule a visit. During each visit, an evaluation is made to determine what kind of medical supplies are needed. We make every effort to supply them with the basic necessities for medical care. As in all aspects of our ministry, we are committed to developing long-term relationships with the villagers and the clinic staff.
Medical Shipments
To date, medical shipments of more than 2 million dollars have been made to hospitals in Kiev, Bila Tserkva and Kherson through a joint projects with Direct Relief International, NY Start (Norway), Hands of Hope and several others.
These shipments included medical supplies (needles, bandages, orthopedic and surgical instruments), and equipment such as ultrasound and EKG machines. In turn, these hospitals cooperate with us when children from the orphanages need procedures.
If you or church would like to help support GHT's Medical Ministry, please contact Nita Hanson at hanson.nita@gmail.com