Tanzanian Miner Gets Help from American Doctors

2006-12-31T10:51:00.000-08:00

Out of the Hospital

Elias was transferred from St. Luke's to Cherokee Regional Medical Center on 12/14/06. He stayed for rehab in the Cherokee hospital until 12/21/06. He had some initial bladder issues that have been resolved. He was walking 900 feet when he was discharged from the hospital. Elias traveled to Chicago (to sight see) this past week and now we are back in Cherokee. Elias is doing exercises daily and we are still praying for some recovery of the nerve function to his lower extremities. We won't know for sure for a few months as to what his final level of functioning will be.

2006-12-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday Night!

Elias is doing great. He was able to get up and sit in a chair today. He also ate his first meal today. His wound drainage is slowing down and this blood work is getting back to normal. Pain control is still the main issue. It is being controlled good with medication and they are starting to wean him off the meds. Elias is still in the ICU and will probably remain there until he is transfered to Cherokee. Now the process of rehabilitation begins. It will be a long road, but we are optomistic about the outcomes. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!!!

jeremy

2006-12-09T06:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday Morning!

Elias is doing OK this morning. As expected there has been quite a bit of blood loss after the surgery. Elias has been given some units of blood to help replace what was lost. He is also dealing with some significant pain at this point which the ICU staff is controlling well, but it makes him quite sleepy. Elias will be unable to drink or eat until his stomach starts to "wake up". This should happen today. Please continue in prayer for him. They are allowing visitors for short periods of time.

2006-12-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Surgery is Complete!!!

Elias is done with surgery in 1/2 the predicted time. he is in the ICU waking up. Thank you for all your prayers!

jeremy

2006-12-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Cleared for Surgery

Yesterday Elias was given a clean bill of health and cleared for surgery on Friday. We need to arrive at St. Luke's in Sioux City at 6am and the surgery will likely be completed by 8pm. Elias will have a short term stay in the hospital there before we can move him back to Cherokee.

Your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated on Friday.

2006-11-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

SURGERY DATE:

Sorry for not updating this sooner. I had been having some problems accessing this blog, but I got it figured out. Anyway, we have a date of December 8th for the surgery!

Other than that, we attended the STEMM fund raiser on Thursday night and it was wonderful. Dr. Meyer and the staff do a wonderful job raising money for the kids of Tanzania. If you don't know STEMM, you should check them out. The website is www.stemm.org

Elias was thrilled with his first snow fall yesterday. He took lots of pictures! That's all for now.

Jeremy

2006-10-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

Pushed Back:

I was informed by the surgery group that the surgery is going to be pushed back by at least 1 week. It looks like there is going to be 3 surgeons involved now so it is taking some time to coordinate all of their schedules.

Sill waiting on the Visa extension.

2006-10-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

CONSULTING WITH OMAHA

I just spoke with the surgery center that is doing Elias's surgery. They are currently consulting with a Spine Group in Omaha, NE to pinpoint the best procedure technique for Elias. It looks like the exact date of surgery will not be know until next week.

Also, no word yet from Homeland security as to the visa.

2006-10-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

Letter from Homeland Security:

I just received a letter from the Des Moines office stating they were forwarding our extension request to the Nebraska office for processing. That means our request was received before Elias's visa expired!

2006-10-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Tanzanian Miner Gets Help from American Doctors

Still Waiting...

No word yet from the Department of Homeland Security on the visa extension. Elias's visa expires today so we hope to hear something soon. Elias is currently at his Physical Therapy appointment. It is amazing to see someone with only minimal knee strength walk a lap at our wellness center using crutches.

2006-10-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Elias with Roommate Mark, and Jeremy

2006-10-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

ELIAS WITH ROOMMATE MARK & JEREMY

2006-10-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

2006-10-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Tanzanian Miner Gets Help from American Doctor

Now in operation! I hope everyone can easily tract Elias's progress using this blog!

2006-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

The Souix City Journal did a write up on Sunday about Elias. I have pasted a copy of the text on this blog. Enjoy!!!

American doctors help Tanzanian miner get medical relief
By Tim Gallagher Journal staff writer

CHEROKEE, Iowa -- Elias Mollell comes from Tanzania, where people greet strangers like family, often with a two-sided hug to match a bright smile. For a couple of years, he relied on the kindness of his countrymen to get from place to place."Hakuna matata," he says, offering his own English translation. "No worries."Sadly, Mollell's life since 1995 has been nothing but worry. Then 25, Mollell worked with eight miners at a tanzanite mine near Merelani when an explosion in an adjacent mine caused their mine shaft to collapse. Mollell was the lone survivor. Buried to his neck, he suffered a broken back and since then has been unable to walk without crutches. A former champion sprinter and long jumper as a high school athlete, Mollell now spends much of his time in a wheelchair.Enter Dr. Jeremy Normington of Cherokee, Iowa. The director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Cherokee Regional Medical Center has taken Mollell's worries and hardship as his own. Normington recently arranged for Mollell to travel to Siouxland, where he may soon benefit from the work of surgeons associated with the Center for Neurosciences Orthopaedics and Spine and St. Luke's Regional Medical Center.Spinal fusions, according to Normington, can cost more than $50,000 in the United States."Being from a country where the average income is $300 per year there is no way he could afford the surgery personally," says Normington. "One way to glorify God is by showing love to our brothers."That's what Normington is trying to do for his brother, Elias Mollell.Graduate student meets a minerSix years ago, graduate student Jeremy Normington took one of his physical therapy rotations at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Tanzania's top rated medical facility and teaching complex. It harbors the only physical therapy teaching department in the country, graduating 10 to 15 students annually."There were 56 physical therapists in Tanzania when I was there in 2000," says Normington, adding there are likely that many in Sioux City alone right now.The country, which relies on mining and tourism, is poor. One of every three children born in Tanzania dies before age 5. Only 8 percent of children in the country graduate from high school. The medical center is located in Moshi, a city of about 100,000 people that put up its first street light a few years ago.Normington was greeted each day at the medical center by Mollell, who worked his way up to walking with crutches while undergoing physical therapy there. Mollell, then 29, took Normington to see his home in the mountains. It's where he raised a son with his extended family. His fiancee, who had given birth to the child, left him after Mollell's accident in the mine, suspecting he could no longer provide for a family. The baby was 3 months old.Mollell's condition worsened over the past several years. His spine became more unstable, causing him constant pain. Normington, who remained in contact, came to believe his friend's only option involved a lumbar fusion in the states.Normington became Mollell's sponsor, arranged for a medical visa that would allow the Tanzanian to travel here. He also found local hospitals and doctors to donate medical services. The work must be done in the next couple of months as the visa lasts only three months.John Comstock, CEO at Cherokee Regional Medical Center, joined Normington in approaching Peter Thoreen, CEO of St. Luke's in Sioux City, about providing facilities and personnel should a surgery take place. Thoreen agreed, offering St. Luke's as the site for an eight- to 10-hour surgery performed by Drs. Steven Meyer and Quentin Durward of CNOS. The surgery is in the works, though no date has been set.The right manThe project has a special place for Meyer, an orthopaedics surgeon who directs Siouxland Tanzania Education Medical Ministries, a medical missionary group that has performed 450 orthopaedic surgeries in Tanzania the past 10 years.Meyer was introduced to Tanzania as a boy growing up on a farm near Hartley, Iowa. His father, he recalls, bought a set of Encyclopedia Britannica and the boy began reading about Africa. He made his first trip there 15 years ago. He's been back 18 times to deliver supplies to orphans, operate on patients and build latrines for struggling communities, among other things. STEMM contributors provided funding this year to send 550 children to school in Tanzania."We had hoped to send 50 to school 10 years ago," Meyer says. "That number is 550 now. We'd like to send 5,000 to school in 10 years."The cost is $150 per child. "That's 30 cents per day," he adds."We like to say that you may be only one person in the world, but you can be the world to one person," Meyer says.His group will soon embark on a $1 million drive to build an orphanage with a church in Tanzania. The project aims to fulfill a promise STEMM members made to a child who contracted the AIDS virus from her mother at birth and later died."If you don't have a family, you're out of the culture in Tanzania," says Meyer, noting there are 2 million orphans in the country.Meyers' work this month with Mollell is an outgrowth of STEMM. It is one way to again showcase what can be done for the needy people of Tanzania, especially miners who work in considerable danger without the benefit of workman's compensation."I think we can help Elias," he says. "It will be difficult as his spine was broken and dislocated at the same time."He predicts the surgery will take both doctors working eight to 10 hours on both sides of Mollell, breaking open what has healed and performing reconstruction along with the fusion. While it may or may not significantly improve Mollell's ambulation, it should surely alleviate much of his pain.For the man who supposedly has "no worries," the development lifts his spirit. Elias Mollell, clad in a Cherokee Regional Medical Center shirt, gives Meyer a two-sided hug. He indicates he had "come to the end of himself" at the end of a two-year stay in a hospital in his home country. He was tired of hopping from person to person, his only way of getting to his destination."He then decided to give himself up to the Lord," Normington says.Soon, he was in physical therapy, slowly gaining strength. More important, he gained a friend, who showed him the way to Northwest Iowa. Elias Mollell can't wait now to walk from this destination pain free. He seeks to start over, working again as a productive member of his home country."No problems," he predicts, again flashing his broad smile. "No worries!"

2006-10-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here is Elias on October 4th, 2006 awaiting his appointment with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Durward.

After the consult the surgeons have decided that surgery can be performed at the end of the month. Now I am in the process of applying for a medical visa extension. Currenlty Elias's visa expires tommorrow. Your continued prayers would be appreciated.

2006-10-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Elias had an MRI on Sept 25th, X-rays and CT on Sept 26th, and he met with the orthopedic surgeon on the 26th as well. Elias then saw the Neurosurgeon on October 4th. It looks like there is a surgical option that will be perfomed the week of OCtober 23rd, 2006. The surgery will be 8-10 hours and is very complicated. The goals of the surgery are to decrease Elias's pain and help to stabilize his spine. Currenlty he walks using 2 crutches and that will likely not change after the surgery. The picture to the left is Dr. Meyer of CNOS with Elias and Jeremy.

2006-10-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Elias Mollel arrived in Minneapolis, from Tanzania, for medical treatment on September 22nd, 2006

2006-10-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a little back ground on the situation: I met Elias in 2000 at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Tanzania. Elias was learning to walk again after a spinal cord injury suffered in the Tanzanite Mines of Tanzania. There was an explosion in a neighboring mine and Elias lost 8 of his co-workers who were buried alive. Elias was buried up to his neck and sustained a spinal cord injury. His fiance at the time left him with his 3 month old because she was concerned that Elias could no longer support a family.

Elias spent 3 years in rural hospital. He was transfered to the KCMC and learned how to walk 3 years after his injury. Since then he has developed horrible pain in his low back. He began writing me e-mails and for 3 years we attempted to get him a medical visa and in July of 2006 we got it!

We began looking for people in the Sioux City area to donate the services. Cherokee Regional Medical Ceneter agreed to pay for Elias's travel, St. Luke's in Sioux City is donating the surgery, and CNOS in Dakota Dunes (Dr. Meyer, and Dr. Durward) agreed to do the surgery consult.

Things fell into place beautifully. God is good!

September 21st, 2006

2006-10-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

The blog is now in opperation!