Thankful

The last Friday of every month, the staff at the hospital meets together for a whole day of prayer where we remember the blessings we had over the past month and put forward specific prayer requests. On 29th November we met, and had a wonderful time of sharing the blessing we enjoyed over 2013 and thanking the Lord for each of them. 

Apologies for the delay in sharing these with you all . . .

Please join us in thanking the Lord for each of the blessings. 

1. The hospital has been done well in 2013 in spite of major challenges. The absence of a surgeon was a major challenge as traditionally we are known as a surgical centre. We thank the Lord that the requirements in terms of finances and other requirements have been met so far especially in the light of a salary revision this year. 

2. Sampoorn Development India, one like-minded organisation has facilitated the construction of a water-tank in the campus. The Lord willing, the construction should be over very soon. 

3. The hospital has got an exclusive electricity connection to the campus and the electricity supply to the region has improved tremendously with us getting an average of 20-22 hours of electricity every day. 

4. There was a portion of land which was donated to us by one of our staff about 2 decades back. Unfortunately, few of the locals had been preventing us from taking occupation of the land. The Lord worked in the minds of these locals and has enabled us to take possession of the land. We could construct a boundary for this land and last week, the Maintenance Department started to cultivate on this land. 

5. Our Community Health Projects have been doing well so far. The impact made by the Climate Change Project, Community Based Rehabilitation Project is being slowly seen in the community. 

6. Our engagement with the government has increased over the last year. In the sphere of Tuberculosis Control, the Tuberculosis Unit caters to a population of over 750,000 population and the Global Fund Project increases awareness about the disease in the district. The UNICEF had requested us to oversee the mentoring of Labour Room facilities in Palamu and Latehar districts, thereby influencing Reproductive and Child Health in the region. Today, we were informed that we have been once more been authorized to disburse funds under the Janani Suraksha Yojana. This scheme was discontinued about 2 years back saying that we did not qualify as we did not have the requisite facilities in terms of personnel. 

7. We live in a region with tremendous amount of social unrest. We estimate that our hospital vehicles travels an average of 300 kilometers every day. We thank the Lord for safety and protection from accidents. 

8. We had some amazing stories of miraculous healing over the last year. We thank the Lord for each of these patients. Many of these patients had come to us as a last resort. 

9. There have been few constructions in the hospital. We thank the Lord for the funds that has enabled us to do these constructions. Please remember the burns unit, critical care unit, the sarai etc.  for which we need more funds. 

10. We thank the Lord for the new staff who joined in 2013. Dr. Roshine Mary Koshy (Medicine Consultant), Dr. Grace Mary George (Medical Officer), Dr. Aroma Tirkey (Dentist), Ms. Meghala Ramasamy, Mr. Jonathan Hongsha (IT Manager), Ms. Sheron Mathew (Physiotherapist), Mr. Asherush (Pharmacist) and Mrs. Tavitha, Ms. Priyanka, Ms. Premadini (Staff Nurses). 

These are the first ten items of thanks and praise which came. There were many more . . . 

24 Hours Electricity

By today evening, it will be 48 hours since we got connected to the government electricity supply which provides us with almost 24 hours of electricity. As in most parts of the country, we don't expect the supply to be there for the whole 24 hours. So far, there was a interruption of only about 2 hours. Otherwise the voltage has been very good. 

We praise God. 

And coincidentally, we got our connection on the 53rd Founder's Day (November 20th). 

There are few aspects for which we specifically want to specifically praise and thank the Lord. 

1. Not having regular electricity has been one of the reasons why quite a few staff did not stay on at NJH. Now, that is going to be old story. 

2. We have an exclusive connection to the hospital now. The village connection is separate. Earlier, the nearby village and the hospital had shared the same transformer and that caused a lot of problems. 

3. Along with the new connection, the electricity board was kind enough to remove all the high tension wires which crisscrossed the campus. 

4. Almost all of our voltage stabilizers are of no use. Because the voltage is too good. We praise God. 

5. The best of all . . . We did not pay any speed money for obtaining the exclusive High Tension Connection and our own transformer. So, we can get things here without bribes. We praise God that we found favor in the eyes of many an official of the Jharkhand Electricity Board. Of course, there were times, when there was quite a lot of pressure to make some payments to speed up the process. We thank the Lord that we could hold on to our principles. 

I thank the Lord for the maintenance department under the leadership of Dinesh who worked worked untiringly and generously in spite of many setbacks and challenges. 

We've ended up spending almost 700,000 INR to get the infrastructure that has facilitated the process of exclusive and seamless connection. So far, we've spend all this from funds generated from patient care. We pray that we would be able to receive gifts from friends and well-wishers to recover this spending so that we can spend more on patient care.

Electricity . . . Round the Clock

Since the last 4 months, we do not have government electricity connection to the campus.

Everything started off sometime in the middle of June, when the transformer that supplies our hospital including the surrounding villages blew up. Historically, the transformer was installed for the use of the hospital, but over time, the local villages also took connections from the same one. In spite of multiple requests for a separate transformer for the hospital, there was no response from the electricity department.

After the transformer blew up, we were into major trouble before we knew it. We already had a transformer donated from one of our sister units. We had applied for getting a separate connection. It was taking time. Meanwhile the replacement of the old electricity board transformer was not of the same quality as that of the previous one. The old one had copper winding. The new one had aluminium winding, which ensured that the quality was much inferior to the old one.

We connected the original load to the new transformer. It was just not able to manage the load. The villagers wanted to have the transformer all for themselves. They insisted that we get a separate transformer. We did not press the matter as we did not want to take any step which will antagonise the local village. Unfortunately, none of the village leaders thought about the need for hospital to have electricity.

We went to the Electricity Board and told of our predicament. It took quite a long time for permission to reach us. Unfortunately, after permission reached us, we were in for more trouble than expected.

The new transformer that we got as a donation blew up. Not once but twice. To cut the story short, we have sent the transformer for a complete overhaul. It would take another 10 days before it is ready.

Since June middle, the hospital is only running on generator except for couple of days when the transformer worked well. Our extra costs for diesel for the generators is almost 200,000 INR per month.

Our maintenance department under Dinesh was totally involved in this matter for the last 4 months. We thank the Lord for this group who toiled day and night to ensure that we would have answers.

Dinesh and co. trying to get the transformer repaired the first time it blew up. 

View from one of the transmission towers. Pic. courtesy. Mr. A Dinesh

In the middle of all these disappointments we’ve a matter of praise. About a month back, a new electricity sub-station has been commissioned in Latehar district. Within a month, another sub-station would start functioning in Daltonganj. This means that we’ve almost 22 hours of electricity a day in the government transmission. Soon, this can go up to a 24 hour electricity supply.

There is a major challenge here too. So far, the electricity transmission lines have been used to only a low voltage. With the arrival of the new substations, the voltage has gone up to normal levels. We hear that quite often there are breakdowns in transmission. Please pray that all this will be rectified by the time the refurbished transformer arrives. Considering the need of round the clock electricity, we also need to plan for one more transformer as a standby.

We request prayers that we would have electricity by the end of this month. Please pray for financial resources too as almost 500,000 INR has been spent so far. And now, there is the cost of refurbishing the transformer as well as purchasing a stand-by transformer. 

The transformer on it's way to Ranchi for an overhaul . . .

Thank you

2 months back, I had a very surprise call from Dr. Mathew George, the then Managing Director of Duncan Hospital, Raxaul. Raxaul had realized that they did not need the 200 KVA generator anymore as the requirement of the hospital had increased. 

And the leadership at Raxaul was kind to consider donating it to NJH. 

That was a great blessing for all of us at NJH. We have been praying for improving our electricity supply for quite a long time. 

There was a change in leadership in Raxaul and the new leadership under Col. Boby Joseph was kind enough to keep the promise.

We sent Mr. Ilias last Sunday to Raxaul to pick up the machine. 

We thank the Lord as well as each of the staff and leadership of Duncan Hospital, Raxaul for donating us the transformer. 

What a place ? ? ?

It is not more than 5 months since I put up the snaps of a very cold winter in NJH. I even had a snap taken of the temperature measured on that day . . . January 8, 2013. 

But, today was a totally different day. The temperature was so high that our thermometer was not enough to measure the temperature. I wonder if it was at least 55 degrees Celsius. 

Good for all people who are away on vacation. But, the better news is that we've been having good electricity supply since the last month. So, not an intolerable summer . . . so far. 

Of course, we would be happy to have some rains . . . Lord, please send us showers of blessings . . . 

Cold . . . Solutions . . .

Over the last 2 weeks, it has been really cold. So cold that we had problems with patient care. . . We lost a preterm baby in the ward . . . 

Of course, we have heaters and warmers. But, the problem has been with electricity too. Most of the time, we have problems with electricity and even when we have electricity, the voltage is too low that the warmers do not work. . .

To give you an idea . . . the following two snaps would help. The first one is taken with a flash and the second one is taken without the flash. The dim light you see is the filament of the 60 Watt bulb burning.

And the next picture shows you the same bulb when the voltage is a bit more better. Well, the above sort of a picture is not so uncommon in most parts of rural India. For our state, it is a shame - as we are a treasure trove of coal and power plants . . .

There has been quite a lot of work on electricity connections which have been aimed at saving energy. We've achieved quite a lot - but the severe cold and the need for heating equipment has put us in a tight spot. . .

We look forward for ideas on how we could use non-conventional energy to warm up our wards and other facilities. . . Of course, one of the major needs are solar water heaters for providing warm water to patients, students and if possible to staff . . .



For those who are not very familiar with our place, there are very few days when we do not have good sunlight during the daytime . . . . which should actually help us to look at solutions which could trap the daytime heat and use it later in the night . . .



Or is it too wishfull thinking ? ? ? 




You may have some query on how the baby died. The baby was born at 29 weeks with a birth weight of 1.4 kgs. He had done well for about a week. He was kept in the warmer. The parents and the staff had been taught to move the baby into 'kangaroo care' if there was a blackout. 




Unfortunately, there was no blackout. The voltage had gone quite down. Nobody noticed it - as many of the bulbs had been recently changed to Compact Flourescent Lamps - they continued to burn well even in the low voltage whereas the warmer did not have enough current to generate enough temperature . . .




I've got hold of a stabiliser for the warmer for the time being thanks to a kind donation from one of our friends. . .  But for the baby, the decision had come too late . . . 




However, we look for more stable solutions . . .