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Selian Lutheran Hospital
Trinity
also provides support for Dr. Mark Jacobson, medical director
of Selian Hospital and public health specialist in Arusha, Tanzania.
Dr. Jacobson has been in Arusha with his wife Linda and children
since 1985. Dr Jacobson's time is spent not only with
directing the hospital, but also with a community outreach
program, an AIDS education program, and the piloting of a
self-insurance scheme.
Selian
Lutheran Hospital, under Dr. Jacobson's direction, has grown from a
dispensary established in 1958 to a 100-bed full service hospital,
offering outpatient, inpatient, obstetric, surgical, maternal and
child health services. Selian has a general medical ward,
surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine, x-ray,
laboratory and a mortuary. The hospital has an average daily census
of 100 inpatients and 100 outpatients. There are 50 births per
month. In 1998, 41,000 patients were served by a staff of 130. Four
physicians, two Tanzanian and two American, are supported by eight
medical assistants who are responsible for the day-to-day care of
the patients. The five leading diagnosis treated at Selian are
pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, trauma and measles.
The
quality of health care in Tanzania has been greatly enhanced by
their ministry of healing. Dr. Jacobson is highly regarded in the
world as a physician, as an expert regarding AIDS and as a
compassionate Christian.
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The Selian medical staff which
includes surgeons, general practitioners, a dentist,
ophthalmologist, and obstetrician.
X-ray of child's legs indicative of
excess fluoride in drinking water. This is a common ailment treated
in Selian Hospital.
A young girl now able to walk after
corrective surgery. In some villages, 20% of the children are
crippled by fluorosis.
Dr. Mark Jacobson and his wife
Linda (center) with Jim and Joan Ribbeck, co-chairs of Trinity's
World Mission Team. The picture was taken at the ELCA Global Mission
Event, Denver, Colorado
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