Dr.
Emmanuel Sandoe to step down as Phebe Hospital Medical Director
Dr. Emmanuel M.
Sandoe has announced that in order to concentrate more fully on his
specialty as an ophthalmologist, he will be stepping down in 2006 as
Medical Director/CEO of Phebe Hospital in Bong County, Liberia.
Dr. Sandoe has held
this position for the past four years, seeing Phebe through some of the
most difficult times the hospital has endured, due to the civil war in
Liberia. In April 2002 hospital staff were forced to evacuate during an
outbreak of violence and destruction. While Phebe never stopped
operating during the war, in March 2003 the staff was forced to move
Phebe operations to the clinic at Salala where they established a
temporary 35-bed field hospital. Prior to the arrival of UN security
forces in Bong county, the entire hospital grounds were severely damaged
and heavily looted. Staff returned to its permanent base in June 2004 to
find its main medical facility severely damaged.
Since then, Dr.
Sandoe has spearheaded a phased reconstruction campaign, helping to
bring Phebe back to normal operations as a referral medical center and
teaching hospital operating in central Liberia. Phebe currently cares
for a population of upwards of 700,000 people comprised of at least 500,
000 residents and thousands of Displaced Persons. The hospital serves
100-120 outpatients daily and provides care to 65 - 70 inpatients daily.
During portions of
this period, because of staff vacancies, Sandoe has also had to
simultaneously serve as Medical Director, hospital administrator, as
well as surgeon and ophthalmologist for the hospital and Health Officer
for Bong Couty.
In a December letter
to the hospital’s board of trustees, Sandoe wrote that serving “multiple
positions and the jobs associated with them have been a challenging, but
we must be grateful to God for giving us the wisdom and the strength
through these years. I accepted the Medical Director position after my
ophthalmologic training because I felt the need was great and Phebe
needed to continue her humanitarian assistance to her patients. Our
performance is clearly shown by the number of patients and people we
have assisted, what Phebe is presently doing, and the physical outlook
of the hospital itself... We want to thank the staff of Phebe, the Board
members, the supporting churches and our partners for their support in
this endeavor.”
Acknowledging the
inability of one person to carry such a heavy load for a long period of
time, Dr. Sandoe has asked the Phebe board to find a new Medical
Director during 2006, so that he might concentrate more on his eye
work. Phebe’s eye center, supported by the Christofel Blinded Mission (CBM)
in Germany, is the only clinic in the area that provides a variety of
basic and advanced eye care, including cataract surgeries, to residents
of central Liberia. During the civil war, the Eye Clinic lost nearly all
of its equipment to looting by combatants. A detailed proposal for the
rehabilitation of the Eye Clinic is planned for 2006.
Currently in Liberia
more than three-quarters of the population is living on less than US $2
a day, and over half are living in abject poverty on less then US$1 a
day. 30% of all major hospitals in the public sector since 1996 have
been reduced to health centers, while 70% remain out of commission. With
the collapse of Liberian Government financing during the war (previously
providing 80-85% of Phebe’s operating budget) Phebe Hospital has relied
on an intermittent mix of operating funding from church and NGO donors,
small grants and patient fees.
The Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been a long-time partner of Phebe
Hospital. For those who are interested in supporting the critical
health care work at Phebe, please contact David Lerseth, Director of
Global Mission Support at
david.lerseth@elca.org 1-800-638-3522, X#2641.
