Illness
Question
How do you handle the problem when children become ill with either minor or major illness?
Answer
We have agreements with two of the hospitals close to the orphanage. In the event we feel the child is beyond what we can safely take care of ‘In House’ we take him/her to one of these two hospitals.
Medical practices in China are not the same as they are in many of the Western countries. There are no “doctor’s office” visits available except for the doctors in the hospitals. That is 100% the case in rural areas like we are in. Perhaps it is not so much that way in the larger metropolitan areas but even there it is close to 90% true.
We hope to eventually have a small medical staff “in house” but that will come sometime in the future. So far we have been blessed with very little sickness among our children and by faith we expect it to stay that way. We constantly enforce and teach hygiene and sanitation to both the children and staff and we feel this also helps keep the children healthy.
The children (and staff) are given a complete physical examination once per year including complete blood screening and X-rays.