Hospital Departments

Mbingo Baptist Hospital has many departments other than the obvious medical and surgical ones.  Each is staffed by Cameroonians, many of whom received much of their training here at Mbingo.  We wanted to introduce you to some of these departments.

Pharmacy.  Manasius, head of pharmacy, is pictured here.  He is involved with dispensing medications, keeping drugs in stock (big job here), mixing compounds, and he often rounds on the wards with the medical teams.  He and the rest of the pharmacy team are a huge asset to the hospital.

Radiology.  This group is focused on xray and ultrasound/echocardiogram.  The ultrasound techs have been trained to read the ultrasounds as well.  We do not have a radiologist and this team is able to provide us with good imaging information despite lack of a CT scanner.  We are currently in the process of upgrading to digital xray, which will be a big improvement over the current film model.

 Dental.  They specialize in extractions, fillings, root canals, and other general dental care.  They have patients come from long distances to receive their high-quality services.

 Physical Therapy.  This is part of the PT team showing how to use some of their equipment.  They provide both inpatient and outpatient service for a range of patients.  They will go from working with a stroke patient, to showing exercises for chronic back pain, to helping an amputee learn to use their new prosthesis.

 Prosthesis Shop.  The prostheses that are used at Mbingo are made on site.  It is easy to tell when one is being made because we can hear the loud sound of drills and sanders being used as we walk past the shop each day on our way in to work.  This picture shows a recently made hip/leg prosthesis...a difficult one to make for sure.

 Shoe Shop.  There is no mall or shoe store around Mbingo, so when shoes start to fall apart, you just bring them to the shoe shop for repair.  Shoes take a beating here, but despite this, almost any shoe can be repaired quickly and be put back to work.  They also make special shoes for former leprosy patients.

 Carpentry.  The quality of the furniture here is top-notch.  The wood planks are made from trees in the area and then brought down to the carpentry department.  The planks are then cut to the correct size before the more intricate work begins.

 This board is being sanded by hand prior to adding it to a new desk, exam table, couch, dining table, bookshelf, chair, or any number of other things that are made here at Mbingo.  In fact, all of the furniture in the houses and any wooden furniture in the hospital is made by the carpentry department.  They even made a toddler bed for Isaac from a picture off the internet.

 Metalworks.  This department accounts for most of the other furniture items in the hospital.  This picture shows welding being done to a medical table to be used in the operating room.  We recently had them make two specialized IV poles for the new IV pumps for the NICU.

 The pregnancy continues to progress without any complications and Angela is feeling well.  Isaac continues to be excited about being a big brother...just look at that smile on his face.

BIG NEWS...Mbingo now has an official website and a new and improved Facebook page.   We have put a lot of work into improving Mbingo's web presence and want it to be easier for people in the US to find out what is happening here.  Please check out the website at http://mbingo.org and the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mbingo.baptist.hospital - and don't forget to "like" the Facebook page so you can see any new updates or pictures.