Last weekend I was on call when a container arrived. This wasn't just a normal container from the Nazarene Hospital Foundation that Dr. Todd Winter faithfully sends us. This was a 40 ft container from Bob and Carol Arrom had sent with new
hospital beds and more. Once I finished rounds I went to see if I could help. Thankfully, there were lots of guys helping to unload the container, so it didn't take too long, but I got to help out. While we were unloading the container, Judy and Marsha were busy trying to figure out where the new hospital beds should go. Any empty beds on the wards were quickly moved outside and replaced with new beds as they came off the truck. Once all the empty beds were replaced we now had to decide which pts to move to give them new beds. I volunteered the B (medical) ward beds to be moved, not just because it is where I am often working, but because the pts often are there for a long period of time. I went around the ward and made of note of which patients were too sick to move them, and then we got started.
Initially we had to take off the patient's sheets from their old beds in order to move them out and the new ones in. Once patients saw what was happening and what the new beds looked like, they were tearing off their sheets and gathering up their stuff as quickly as possible so they could have one of the new beds. Some patients were so determined to get a new bed, that they carried their bed
outside, that way ensuring that they would get a new one. Others were so excited that they went outside and found a new bed and helped to bring it in. Once all the new beds were in, we still had some extra mattresses, so we were able to switch out some of those also.
You may wonder if we really needed new hospital beds and was it really necessary to send them from America to PNG. Well the first pic on the R is what the old hospital beds looked like. The mattress was maybe 1 inch thick which sat on top of a piece of plywood - not very comfortable at all. Many of the beds were broken and pieces of plywood were splintered and sticking out, so yes the beds were necessary. The day after the bed exchange, I was rounding and asked the patients if they liked their new beds. They all had huge smiles on their faces and didn't want to go home. One patient I wanted to move to the TB ward and his first question was what kind of bed do they have. So thank you to the Arroms for bringing a little more comfort into the patients lives here at Kudjip.