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Your Gift is on its Way to India

On Thursday, August 14th, just before 10 am, a guy named Kenny—with tattoos running up and down both legs—expertly backed a 40-foot shipping container up to Dock #3 at the old campus of Middletown Regional Hospital. I quickly wrote down the container number--PONU 157484-2—as I’d been told to do. He disconnected the trailer from the cab and drove off, and I raced back inside to help my friend (and fellow traveler to India last fall), Pat Smith, oversee the loading of the container.
Shortly after 2, Kenny returned, and quickly drove off with a container that was 12,000 pounds heavier and loaded with treasures for The Christian Hospital of Mungeli and the medical superintendent Anil Henry.
There were rolling stainless steel carts galore, over-the-bed-tables, bedside commodes and bedside lockers for patients’ belongings. There were rolling IV stands, stackable chairs, and reclining chairs, autoclave boxes, huge cartons of new scrub suits and patient gowns, and other cartons filled with a variety of medical supplies ranging from powderless gloves to padding for splints, from emesis basins to pneumothorax kits.  We were especially delighted to send several stainless steel, rolling bassinet carts with clear plastic beds on top (and several bags of new flannel nighties—newborn size) and a large stainless steel crib. These will be perfect for the nursery Anil wants to create.
Three rolling stretchers (with assorted parts I can only wonder about) will be useful all over the hospital. Two of them may end up in the planned recovery room. The third, designed for use in obstetrics, will be perfect for the planned delivery room.
Alone in the abandoned hospital (there’s a new Middletown Hospital a few miles away), Pat and I pushed everything from a locked storage room to a staging area just inside the dock. And the four movers rolled and carried everything into the container, using a ladder and considerable skill and muscle to create stable 8-foot tall stacks to use every inch of space. The last two things to be loaded were the biggest prizes of all—two sets of 370-pound operating lights. Each contains two counterbalanced, maneuverable lights that can easily be adjusted for brightness and width of focus. One will probably go in the new delivery room; the other, in an existing operating room. The price to buy new lights like these is about $4,000 each.
With the container doors closed with a numbered seal and locked with a padlock, Pat drove back to work in Dayton, and I drove to Oxford for a weekend with my daughter and her family.
I couldn’t wait to tell people the container was packed and on its way, but I was surprised when many said, “You must feel so proud.” But it wasn’t like that at all. We felt relief—that’s for sure—because the 12 months between saying to each other, “Let’s send some hospital furniture to Anil,” and the half day it took us to load the container were filled with exhausting ups and downs, stops and starts, and promises that seemed unlikely to be kept. Only a few days before we packed the container we seemed certain to lose everything to the liquidator who was hot on our heels to lay claim to everything in the deserted hospital. 
But along with—and soon supplanting—the relief is an awareness that we were blessed with an opportunity to be part of a large team of people who helped all along the way.
All winter and spring, people at Premier Health Partners (the parent organization of the Middletown hospital and several Dayton hospitals) called Pat to come pick up a carton of equipment and supplies for India. And it was Premier Health Partners that finally gave us the go ahead to wander through the abandoned Middletown hospital and glean all the treasures we sent. Tish Dahlby, executive director of a Cleveland charitable organization called MedWish International (where I was referred by Kelly and Carol Tattar) offered frequent e-mail support and referrals that made the shipment possible. And she ended each e-mail with a promise to help if the Middletown project fell through.
Many of you heard about the project months ago and told your friends who told their friends who volunteered to help. Many of you sent money; others, prayers. An Avon Lake company, The Commerce Benefits Group, put out big cartons and collected hundreds of children’s books for the Mungeli school.  Pat’s son-in-law Joe spent two exhausting days with us lugging furniture all over Middletown hospital; and my Oxford son-in-law Chris gave us a third day’s help. A retired doctor donated his library of medical books. A nurse in New Hampshire sent cartons of new and used nursing text books. Kelly was tireless in writing letters to Premier Health Partners and its member hospitals pleading our cause.
And—in an e-mail—that took my breath away, Sheila Rawls, administrative assistant to James Vijayakumar at the Southern Asia Office of Global Ministries said they would pay all the shipping costs. Pat and I hadn’t figured out how we’d pay the costs. We just had faith we would. And then, we experienced that moment of grace.
When I think back to how naive we were last fall, I realize I can never again laugh at people who think the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale. But maybe our faith that it would all work out made the moments of grace possible.
For the next four weeks, container number PONU 157484-2 will be riding the waves aboard the South African ship Maersk Dortmund, and then it will be off-loaded at the port of Chennai. After that Anil has the task of clearing customs and moving everything nearly 800 miles to Mungeli. And after that—I can picture everything in its place. And that makes me smile.
Thank you for the part you played in this saga. And if, by chance, you’re saying to yourself right now, “Oh darn I wanted to contribute some money to that,” it’s not too late. Just send or bring a check to church marked “shipment to India.” We still have some unpaid bills here, and we’d like to send some money to Anil to help with the nearly $4,000 in costs he’ll incur. Write the check and see—maybe you’ll experience a moment of grace, too.

Photos:

Kenny made backing up a 40-foot container look easy

Before we starting collecting furniture and equipment, we wanted to see how much room we'd have in the container. We taped off an 8' by 40' rectangle--shown here with four men standing at the corners--and started filling it up


This is one of three stretchers we were excited to find. Not sure why it's decorated with Christmas stockings!


This robotic praying mantis is actually one of two sets of OR lights. We had to hire electricians to disconnect them and get the 370 pound treasures off the ceiling.


This is my friend Pat Smith with her new friend Sammy the Skeleton. Sammy is riding to India inside a storage cabinet. We hope the customs officials open that door first.


After we collected everything, we shrink-wrapped several items together, creating 8' tall stacks on wheels


Hiring packers was one of our better moves. That container was dark and huge


The last things to be packed were the OR lights. And then we sent it all off with Kenny at the wheel.

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