The joint medical outreach benefited an eastern
village in Gansu Province. It is located in Northwest China.
This area is rugged and barren, consisting of mostly mountains
and deserts. The people are the DongXiang, a largely Islamic
ethnic minority, closely related to the Mongolians. They live
in an area known as Dongxiang. And interestingly the dialect
is Dongxiang. They rely mainly on agriculture and livestock
for a living. Dongxiang and the neighboring villages of the
Gansu Province are considered the poorest of the poor.
We arrived in Beijing and stayed overnight.
From Beijing we traveled by air to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu
Province. We met up with the mission team and boarded a bus
to Lanzhou City where we were joined by the other volunteers
from Australia & UK. After lunch the “team”
continued on a 3 1/2 hour ride scaling the mountain range towards
Linxia, our home base for the next 7 days.
Each morning, several vans collected the volunteers
for the 55-minute “rollercoaster” ride through the
steep and winding road towards the mission venue located some
4,000 ft. above sea level. Treacherous as it might be, the views
were awesome. At last we reached the village of Dongxiang.
After settling in, the Pharmacy and Surgical
Supplies were readied for the following day’s mission.
The medical group had a “dry run” while the surgical
team pre-screened patients. Totally unexpected, we treated over
50 medical patients.
During the mission, there were hundreds of patients anxiously
waiting to be seen by the doctors. The crowds grew larger and
louder. Since most Dongxiang have never seen western doctors,
they were overly excited to the point of almost trampling on
each other. Because of the language barriers the doctors in
the clinic needed extra time to make sure the patients and interpreters
understood each other. Just like children, the crowd lost their
patience and tried breaking the lines, causing dissension among
themselves. Twice the medical portion had to be shutdown. Thanks
to the help of the civil authorities order was restored and
over 500 patients were treated. Every patient received their
prescribed medication. The remaining unexpired medicines were
donated to the Dongxiang Hospital.
The surgical team was not aware of the frenzy
outside. Inside the single operating room, surgeons operated
on two operating tables side by side. No less than 6 heads tended
each table-several local doctors took advantage of the chance
for some surgical instruction. The operating room was so quiet--only
soft whispers among the participants could be heard. As for
the patients they were asleep! What a contrast! When we left
the hospital all the surgical patients were already sent home.
Our surgeons endorsed to the local doctors the list of patients
who needed sutures removed. The surgical team performed 46 major
surgeries.
One of the young patients who had hernia repair
said he did not even feel like he had surgery. His father said
that it would take a year’s income to pay for such a procedure.
He expressed his thanks and appreciation to “western”
team for reaching out to Dongxiang people.
We won’t forget the weather-bitten faces
of the Dongxiang women and men; the solemn faces of children;
the scenery, which provides contrast of nature’s beauty
and the people’s harsh reality.
