FAIR Blog

Highs and Lows of Being a Doctor in Rural Africa

There are many highs and lows to being a doctor in rural Africa. Dr. Jesh and Julie Thiessen, Fellowship International missionaries serving at the Good News Hospital in Madagascar, are helping to launch a new Christian surgical residency program. FAIR is excited to help with this endeavor through the Out of the Waiting Room special appeal, with the goal of funding this initiative for the next five years. In August, we at FAIR had the opportunity to talk with the Thiessens about some of the highs and lows of their experiences over this past year and we want to share those with you.

Highs: An Awesome Team
“We have been able to develop many good friendships and community in the team. Everyone on the team has inspiring stories of why they are serving at the hospital. For example, the head of the maintenance department and his wife are here in the village, away from the capital city where they are from, because they felt God wanted them to work here in this place and have now been here for 25 years. A surgical colleague and his wife moved away from a very comfortable life and careers in another part of Madagascar to serve here as missionaries. She quit her professional job knowing that she wouldn’t be able to find a job here, and he took a fifty percent pay-cut because they were so excited to be part of starting this residency training program. He actually had been a part of a similar training program in another country, and bringing this to Madagascar was so worth it to them.

“We live on the hospital compound with the rest of the staff and are able to have some hilarious times together. It’s really fun to see the dynamics of different cultures, learning about each other’s cultures and foods. There isn’t a lot to do so we make our own entertainment and they like to enjoy a good party. They pull out the music, dance, and everyone takes turns doing party games. With multiple languages at play, these random party games are a lot of fun. The Malagasy staff all know these special Malagasy dances and on Madagascar’s Independence Day, they asked Julie to teach them a Canadian dance. Put on the spot, she could only think of the Chicken Dance! Now everyone thinks this is a Canadian dance. That was a cultural faux pas on our part! (ha ha) What’s so fun is that the whole community was into it, from kids to almost retired people.

Lows: A Small Team
“People who we were expecting to be able to join or return to the hospital have been unable to do so. Madagascar’s borders are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions and so seven missionaries who had left on furlough are unable to return and the teacher who was going to help our children with their education can no longer come. From a family and community level, this is really challenging.

Lows: COVID
“We don’t have regularly available COVID tests and so when we have suspected patients, we just have to guess if they have COVID. Imagine what that is like; if we do test for COVID, we have to send those tests away and it often takes three, four, or more days to get the results back. It was really challenging. Luckily, COVID has not spread too quickly in our area from what we can tell.

“The other thing is vaccines. We have both received our first dose, but the second dose hasn’t arrived. There isn’t readily available vaccines.

“From a patient level, it affects care. Many patients fear COVID to the degree that they won’t come to the hospital if there is any concern about COVID or they will leave if they are told that it might be COVID. There is this fear and so they stay away and don’t get the help that they need. We have had patients leave the hospital mid-care because other patients were potentially COVID-positive.

Highs: COVID Recovery
“Basically, all of the hospital staff and missionaries have had COVID but everyone has recovered including a 70-year-old doctor that was here. It hasn’t been too devastating on a personal level.

Lows: Challenging Cases
“We have found that a lot of patients wait to come to the hospital until their situation is critical. Sometimes, they delay out of fear of COVID or they try to get better at home first because the journey to the hospital is long and difficult. This means that many patient’s situations are more complex. For example, a patient will arrive with a burst appendix instead of coming when they first noticed pain. This makes their treatment more complex for them and for us but we also empathize with the difficult choices that each patient must make.

High and Lows: Preparing patients to meet with Jesus
“We are grateful that we serve in a mission hospital. This gives us the freedom to help patients know Jesus while they receive care. Often, patients arrive in serious condition with little hope of recovery and so we care for them — spiritually preparing Christians to meet Jesus soon and introducing those who don’t know Jesus to Him, our Lord and Saviour. These are special conversations to have with each patient and their family that are a mix of joy and grief.”

Thank you, Jesh and Julie, for sharing some of the highs and lows of your ministry at the Good News Hospital. We love to hear your passion, vision, and heart for the people in Madagascar. The team at FAIR is excited to be helping you launch this new Christian surgical residency training program to help more surgeons join you in this important work.

To learn more about this opportunity, please visit the appeal page.

You can read more stories from the Thiessen’s on the FAIR blog.