Patients in Jamaica praise God as Samaritan’s Purse provides critical care at our Emergency Field Hospital after Hurricane Melissa.
As Samaritan’s Purse continues to respond, working alongside local churches to meet the needs of suffering people, our medical and surgical teams at our Emergency Field Hospital began treating patients Nov. 5.
It’s been a race against time to help people living in communities cut off by the storm. Like most buildings in the community, the local hospital in Black River is now in pieces, leaving people in desperate need of medical care.
Team members rush a patient to the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in Black River.
In the first two days alone, our medical teams served more than 75 patients, performing surgeries, setting fractures, and dressing wounds. Medical personnel are also sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with the sick and injured and their loved ones.
“I’ve had many patients that say their house was blown away, their medicines were blown away. They have no prescriptions left. We’re trying to fill in the gap for them,” Dr. Joe Lamb, a physician on our disaster assistance response team (DART) serving at the Emergency Field Hospital.
Dr. Joe Lamb, a longtime DART physician with Samaritan’s Purse, encourages an elderly patient brought in the first day of operation at the field hospital.
Unspeakable Joy and Peace
A woman named Jennifer was one of the first patients in the door but she didn’t walk, she was wheeled, with her foot gingerly wrapped in gauze. It was an old injury, made worse with time and insufficient care.
Jennifer smiles as she thanks a Samaritan’s Purse nurse who cared for her injured foot at the Emergency Field Hospital.
Even facing the possible loss of her foot due to infection, she still maintained her smile as she told our team repeatedly, “We give thanks to God. We’re giving thanks and we love you. I will give thanks to all who come to help Jamaican people.”
As she was leaving the hospital, assured her foot would fully heal, we asked her about her unspeakable joy considering all that she still has to endure after this storm and she quoted a Scripture familiar to many. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
During the storm she took neighbors in, thinking her elevated home would be safe from flooding. But her roof was no match for 185 mph winds that ripped across the island’s western coast.
“Plenty of people lost their houses, lost their buildings. If you see it, you would cry. Some people don’t have anywhere to go,” Jennifer said.
Lasbourne Ricketts is one such person, left homeless after the storm.
Lasbourne Ricketts meets with Samaritan’s Purse medical staff after losing his home and access to regular care in the storm.
He attempted to reach the local hospital for a routine treatment of a chronic condition. All he found was a field of debris where the facility had stood. With no access to medical care, he wasn’t sure what to do until our field hospital began receiving patients. He left all smiles, overflowing with gratitude, and covered in prayer.
Many patients visiting our hospital are like Lasbourne. They depend on regular medical care and reliable access to medication.
Donna, a diabetic and 59-year resident of Black River, came to us hoping we would have medicine. She’d never seen a storm like this one. It’s only by the grace of God, she says, that she’s alive today.
Samaritan’s Purse medical staff meet with Donna, a longtime resident of Black River, as she seeks medication and encouragement after the storm.
“He protected us. So you have to believe in Him and hold on strong. You have to hold on to Jesus right through the storm. We give God thanks we are here this morning,” Donna said.
Our patients are proud of their culture and proud of their faith – it makes for a hospital full of prayer and thanksgiving for the protective hand of God.
Treating Trauma After the Storm
Medical care can’t heal all the wounds left behind after Hurricane Melissa, many go beyond physical cuts, creating incredible Gospel opportunities for our doctors. Serving a patient can be quick, sometimes less than an hour, but have eternal impact.
Samaritan’s Purse doctors and nurses treat storm-related injuries and share Christ’s love with patients inside the Emergency Field Hospital.
“I always try to remind myself, and remind the patients, that I’m not the healer. Jesus is the Healer and the Great Physician,” Dr. Lamb said. “We look to Him for healing and we’re just His hands and feet and anyway we can enter into His plan, that’s what we’re doing.”
Please continue to pray for our medical teams, our DART staff, and local churches and that the people of Jamaica would experience God’s love in the midst of their suffering. For ongoing coverage of this response, visit samaritanspurse.org/melissa.
