The Compassion and Mercy of Christ-Centered Healthcare

“I want to share a story with you about a patient,” Dr. Molsee begins. “I could tell stories for hours; but I’m going to share a story with you tonight about a family that we have known for the past eight years.”

Grant recipient Dr. Melissa Molsee serves at the Hospital of Hope in Mongo, Togo in West Africa. The hospital sits in northern Togo, just below the border of Burkina Faso. She is an internist by training but practices general medicine on the mission field. Because of the needs, she also cares for the pediatric population and high-risk OB patients.

“I’ve been very blessed to have people there on site that have been able to train me; so, kind of doing a secondary residency program in pediatrics. God–He stretches, and He uses–so that’s what I do in Togo,” she explains as she begins her story.

Several years ago, one of her employees came to her at the clinic and brought his mother figure. It was the woman who had raised him, he explained, and she was extremely ill. Dr. Molsee diagnosed her with metastatic cancer, and the woman was already far too sick for anything curative to be done. However, she was in extreme pain; she was anemic and also trying to nurse her young baby.

“I was able to call a chaplain to the home who spoke her heart language and was able to connect with her that way and explain her diagnosis,” Dr. Molsee continues. “We explained that there was nothing curative that we could do, and our goal was to make her as comfortable as possible and help her to live out her days.”

Dr. Molsee shares that this mother then spoke with tears in her eyes, saying she worried that her infant son was wasting away because she couldn’t adequately nourish him in her condition. She was afraid that he would die before she did.

“Our chaplain just knelt at her feet, and said, ‘It will be okay. We will come alongside and help’” she shares. “And so, through another fund that we have at the hospital called the Milk and Eggs Fund, we were able to get formula for the baby. We were able to treat him for worms and other tropical diseases. And she was–even as she was failing–she was watching him thrive. And that brought a lot of peace to her heart.”

Dr. Molsee and her husband continued to be there for the family as the mother declined. They would get a call in the evening that the family was worried about her breathing, and they would go visit and counsel them through the process of a loved one dying.

“Our chaplains were able to come along with some of those visits, and other times I’d go by myself, and just be there for the family,” she tells us. “It was a joy and a privilege to be able to walk with them through this process. [The mother] ended up passing away when her son was about a year old. I’ve since started a small palliative care hospice program in my off hours based on my experience with this family,” she finishes.

Your gift to MedSend means doctors like Melissa Molsee can bless families like this one with the compassion and mercy of Christ-centered healthcare. Even while the family grieved the loss of one, they were treated with dignity and buoyed by the hope of a young life saved. Dr. Molsee wants you to know “We’re very thankful for MedSend and the gift it’s been to our family.”

Together, we all can make a difference for Christ!

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