A new eye surgeon for the Good News Hospital
Dr Hanitra has been the Good News Hospital eye surgeon for the past 20 years or so. Though she deals with all kinds of eye conditions as well as giving out glasses to those who need them, her main focus has been in restoring sight to those who have become blind through the development of dense cataracts. Around 500 people have had their sight restored each year. It is a huge privilege for us to have an eye surgeon – there are only 25 eye surgeons in the whole of Madagascar, which has a population of 30 million.
Dr Miandrisoa, Dr John Sharp and Dr Hanitra
Before Dr Hanitra, the hospital had had, for a short while, an eye department and an eye surgeon. He was a Malagasy doctor who had been sent to Tanzania for training by a missionary eye surgeon there. But when he left unexpectedly, a big gap appeared in the services provided by the hospital – and two big question marks: where would we find another capable doctor willing to train as an eye surgeon? and how would we train them? When such questions and needs have presented themselves, during the history of the Good News Hospital, there has always been one thing clear – the need to pray and trust God to provide. And God did provide in a wonderful way. Hanitra was working as a junior general doctor in the hospital and had proved her abilities. And although she was hesitant at first of taking this big leap into the unknown, she soon accepted that God was calling to her. At the same time, an experienced American eye surgeon working further south in Madagascar with Christian Blind Mission, was free to come to Mandritsara for one year to train her.
Dr Miandrisoa
For 20 years the need has been met. But, as we mentioned in a post about Dr Hanitra last year, she has now reached retirement age, and although she is keen to stay on for a few more years, the need to train someone to replace her in future days has become evident. But there have been two questions – the same questions as 20+ years ago: where would we find another capable doctor willing to train as an eye surgeon? and how would we train them? It has been a subject of prayer – but now, enter Dr Miandrisoa.
Dr Miandrisoa (her name means “wait well”) is a Malagasy Christian doctor from Ambatondrazaka – a remote town about half way between Antananarivo and Mandritsara, though this is not the way the current road to Mandritsara goes. She is married with a young child. Her husband is in management and currently looking for work in Mandritsara. Miandrisoa responded to the advertisement for new doctors for the hospital, and on interview was found to be interested in the training to be the hospital eye surgeon.
Dr Miandrisoa training on a simulator
But how to train Dr Miandrisoa? Well of course she can learn under the care and supervision of Dr Hanitra – and has already started doing so. But in addition to this, two other supplements to her training have been found.
The first is Dr John Sharp. He is a Christian eye surgeon from Cambridge. He has offered to come to Mandritsara for a month every year to help Miandrisoa’s training. He has received special leave from his hospital to come to Mandritsara for this.
The second is an American organization called “Help me See” which has a centre in Antananarivo. Their goal is to train doctors to do cataract surgery. They use a virtual reality “simulator” in the training, helping the new surgeons to become confident of the surgical technique. Miandrisoa has been accepted as one of their trainees and will spend two weeks with “Help me See” every two months.
God has answered two big questions – who to train? and how to train? Now we must pray for Miandrisoa’s actual training and integration into the Good News Hospital work and witness.
Prayer points:
Praise God for the provision of Dr Miandrisoa and provision for her training.
Please pray for Dr Miandrisoa’s family – that they may settle happily in Mandritsara, that her husband may find work, and that good care may be found for her child.
Pray that they may settle happily into a church in Mandritsara and into the Christian life and witness of the hospital.
Pray for Dr Hanitra, training her successor, for Dr John Sharp coming each year, and for the training at “Help me See.”
Pray that many blind people may have physical sight restored at the Good News Hospital, and receive spiritual sight as they believe the gospel and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.