Mission trip to be highlighted Sunday
by Peter Jakey-Managing Editor
Former Onaway resident Sherron Wendt will be presenting pictures and stories about her experiences from a recent mission trip to southern Ethiopia, Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.
Wendt is a 1963 Onaway High School alumnus, who was part of the last class to graduate from the old high school. She has been working as a RN all her adult life. She has many family ties to the Onaway area and looks forward to making the presentation at Remnant Church of Christ, 2104 M-68 in Onaway (former Presque Isle Academy building). Her sister is author Peg Herring.
Sherron said everyone is welcome to attend, whether they supported her two-month mission trip in the impoverished country, or were not aware of it until now. There will be no offering taken.
She had friends, obstetrician Mark Karnes and his wife, move there two and a half years ago. It had been one of her life goals to be involved as a missionary.
“I had to really think about it, how to keep everything at home going,” said Sherron. “Of course, at my age, making a trip like that was kind of daunting. I had never traveled internationally.”
Sherron has passion and experience for obstrestrics, and worked with birthing mothers, as well as other areas.
“I did some country clinics, where I was able to go with two young nurses and drive two or three hours and try and see the farm women, who cannot go to a doctor,” she said. “They come to this ratty government clinic that they let us use one room of.” They would check the mother’s blood pressure and the baby, and give them vitamins and antimalarials.
As in many African countries, the mortality rate is high among women and babies because of the conditions, as well as poorly trained staff. Sherron said many mothers and babies die nearly every day.
“The problem is that only 90 percent of Ethiopian women ever deliver a baby with anyone that is remotely trained,” said Sherron. “Sometimes the family comes in with a woman near death; the baby already has died; or baby is alive and mom is about ready to die because she is bleeding out.”
Sherron said the goal is to make the OB unit user friendly for the people, according to their customs, and try and get the word out that the hospital experience can be a positive one.
“Their fear is that if they go to a hospital, they go to die,” said Sherron. “The government hospitals are known for that.”
Additionally, some babies do not make it through the night because they are not kept warm.
There is no heat at the hospital and only one isolette for premature babies. When preemies are born they have to be rolled over to the nurses’ station by a space heater.
Women would deliver in street clothes in a cold delivery room. It is especially cold and damp during the rainy season.
“I was able to work with another doctor’s wife to design a modest patient gown that they are now using,” said Sherron. “I also found fleece blankets in town, which is rare
Sherron also was involved in brainstorming some type of pad for after delivery, because there was nothing available.
“That too has evolved and the decrease of blood and pathogens for all to walk in has been greatly diminished, and needed to be,” she said.
Sherron, who lives in Muskegon, will provide many more details with her PowerPoint presentation Sunday, along with photos.