May 9, 2006
In a series of ironies, the first patients treated at Koutiala Women and Children’s Hospital were Alliance personnel. Missionary apprentices Shawn and Becky McCabe had been awaiting the arrival of their second child, assuming that the hospital would have electricity and be open long before the their baby’s due date. But that was not the case. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the hospital has yet to open because of no electricity and an unreliable generator.
A little matter of electricity was not about to deter the McCabe baby from making his grand entrance. Becky gave birth to a healthy boy, who weighed 7 pounds, 13.5 ounces on May 8. Mother and baby have been released to the care of the hospital’s doctor and midwife.
Later that evening, CAMA Services worker Betsy Bohuslavsky also received treatment at the hospital. Betsy was seriously injured in an accident on May 8, when she veered off the road on her bicycle and fell into a gully. Betsy remains in the hospital. Her condition is stable, but she has a concussion and internal bleeding. Thankfully, the usually unreliable generator is in working condition for the hospital’s first patients.
UPDATE (5/11/06): Betsy is making a remarkable recovery and was released from the hospital yesterday. Gail Warner, who has been with Betsy since the accident, says, “We continue to praise God, knowing that it is Him and Him alone who has brought about such a quick recovery. I stand amazed at how an all-powerful God chooses to work through our prayers. We have felt the effect of them over the past 72 hours!”