The plan for opening EHA’s Broadwell Christian Hospital became possible in 1894 when the Women’s Union Missionary Society received a $10,000 donation from Samuel Broadwell of Cincinnati in memory of his wife. In 1909 the Lily Lytle Broadwell Memorial Dispensary was founded. Then in 1930, 27 beds were added for female patients.

After a rough season in 2022-23, the hospital is up and running under a new team. Today the hospital has grown to offer a variety of services, including emergency care, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, palliative care, dentistry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and many types of lab work. In the course of a year, their outpatient department now serves 25,785 patients, and approximately 1,120 are admitted to the inpatient department. The staff give about 3,000 immunizations each year.

Since starting up with the new team, Broadwell has not had a high enough patient footfall to keep up with bills and salaries, and they have fallen somewhat behind. They also have a real need for additional staff housing, a cauterization machine, and an all-wheel vehicle for visiting rural areas with poor roads. If you would like to contribute to help Broadwell meet these needs, click on the button in the top right corner of the page.

After Swapna had given birth to two daughters, both by cesarean section, she and her husband decided to try again for a son. But in her fifth month, she began bleeding uncontrollably. Swapna was rushed to Broadwell Christian Hospital (BCH), unconscious and with no recordable blood pressure or pulse.

The BCH team jumped into action, intubating Swapna, and delivering her tiny baby who was too small to survive. But blood was still pouring out of her, and the doctors gave her several transfusions. Next they performed an emergency cesarean hysterectomy. The doctors continued to closely monitor her condition, and slowly the bleeding ceased. Eventually, Swapna was able to be taken off the ventilator and she grew stronger. Everyone was thrilled when Swapna was released to go home to her husband and two beautiful daughters. Without the quick action of the BCH medical team, Swapna would not have had this second chance at life.

Aanya was a 55-year-old daily laborer from the village. She came to Broadwell Christian Hospital for dental care because she had pain and swelling around her bottom teeth.

BCH’s dentist soon discovered that Aanya had visited a poorly trained village dentist who had created and installed a faulty prosthesis to replace several missing teeth. This prosthesis had immediately caused sensitivity, swelling, a foul smell, and bleeding gums.

The hospital dentist immediately removed the faulty device and cleaned the area. Aanya was given antibiotics for the infection and a solution to gargle with. After ten days she returned so the dentist could make an impression for a removable partial denture. Once this custom prosthesis came in, it was inserted comfortably into Aanya’s mouth, and she went on her way with a smile, thankful for the excellent dental care she had received at Broadwell.

Located in Uttar Pradesh in North-Central India, Broadwell Christian Hospital provides services that focus on the health of mothers and children. They have a 7-bed ICU and a 5-bed High Dependency Unit with 3 ventilators, and their outpatient department sees about 100 patients daily. While their patient numbers have dropped some post-COVID, they still offer various types of care for conditions such as TB and HIV/AIDS.

Their greatest needs are for an ultrasound machine and for funds to complete four more staff apartments. Since COVID, they have only had enough income for salaries and expenses—they’ve had to leave their housing construction project unfinished and are unable to spend money on improvements and new equipment.

Broadwell offers a 2-year medical lab technician course with classes of 8 to 16 students. Sometimes other EHA hospitals sponsor students, and the technicians have no trouble finding jobs after graduation. This training is a great opportunity for young people in the area who have few options for education.

The hospital’s community programs are varied and robust, covering areas such as mental health, disability, adolescent health, and antenatal care. Read the following story about one young woman impacted by Broadwell’s community program.

Teenage Rayka came from a poor family full of strife, and she struggled with difficult friendships. She gave up on school and dropped out. In despair, she attempted suicide. Thankfully, she lived close to Broadwell Christian Hospital, and they had started providing adolescent mental health classes in her village. Rayka began attending the classes and came to understand her depression and how to overcome it. She gained problem solving skills and soon went back to school and finished her education.

Broadwell’s classes and counseling gave her the tools she needed, and her self-worth grew. Now Rayka is holding down a job and is looked up to as the best example in the area of a young woman who has overcome her difficulties. She brings a ray of hope when telling her story to struggling girls, and her success helps break the stigma of mental health issues.

Mrs. Sharda came in with no peripheral pulse and unrecordable blood pressure. She had delivered a healthy baby just three hours earlier in a nearby hospital, but they couldn’t stop her bleeding. She was sent to the government district hospital, but when they couldn’t help either she was brought into EHA’s Broadwell Christian hospital.

Thankfully, their High Dependency Unit was newly functioning, so the doctors immediately resuscitated and intubated Mrs. Sharda and sent her relatives off to get blood from a nearby blood bank. Her uterus was not contracted at all, so the doctors planned a hysterectomy, but they had to wait two hours for the blood to arrive. The resident gynecologist was out of town, so a junior doctor did the procedure, assisted by an experienced technician.

After the surgery, the staff gave Mrs. Sharda continuous cardiac monitoring, ventilator support, and inotropic infusions to maintain her blood pressure. The doctors waited anxiously for signs that her body was recovering, and they prayed for a miracle. Overnight her blood pressure picked up and her urine output became normal; she regained consciousness. They extubated her and weaned her off the inotropic support 24 hours later. Slowly, Mrs. Sharda recovered from this harrowing experience.

A Broadwell doctor shared this case with a professor of gynecology at CMC Vellore (a top medical school in India), who said it really was a miracle because they had lost many patients in similar situations at CMC. God had blessed the staff of Broadwell Christian Hospital and brought healing to this woman through their heroic efforts.

Pyarelal was worried when he coughed up blood. He sought medical help and eventually tested positive for Tuberculosis. After his initial treatment, his condition worsened. His crying wife called Broadwell Christian Hospital’s Community Health Team and asked for help.

The key to successfully treating TB is consistency in taking the medications. The course of treatment lasts six months, and if the medicine is not taken consistently or not taken to completion, TB will return and often then be drug resistant. By the time the Community Health Team visited Pyarelal, he was wasting away and his family had lost all hope. The staff counselled the family about the importance of taking the medications consistently.

But Pyarelal did not want to take the medicines because of his discomfort, so he began hiding them, which caused fighting in his family. The Community Health Team continued to visit Pyarelal and impress upon him the need for medicine. Then the team noticed that the family was struggling financially due to spending too much on medical care. The staff of Broadwell Christian Hospital contributed money toward purchasing a month’s worth of food for the family. After two months of continued visits, the team could see improvement. Pyarelal was eating more and gaining strength. First he was able to sit up by himself in bed, then walk around using a stick, and eventually his mental outlook improved as well. At the completion of his six months of treatment, Pyarelal was given a clean bill of health, and he now goes off daily to sell vegetables in the market to support his family. The life of this one man and his family was completely changed by the continuous care of one of EHA’s Community Health Teams.

All EHA hospitals, including Broadwell Christian Hospital, offer charity in the form of fee reduction for patients who need it. (The funding to do this comes from generous donors like you.)

The trick is in figuring out who deserves it. The truly poor who may have to sell an animal or other possession or borrow from a money-lender charging exorbitant interest in order to afford the 50 cents that a doctor’s visit costs — they will seldom ask for help. They just do what they have to do to pay the bill, and then live with the financial loss. Sometimes a family will even lose their home in order to pay a medical bill. There is just no surplus income to pay for anything beyond the necessities of food, shelter, and clothing.

On the other hand, patients from the middle or upper class will often stridently demand a discount even when they don’t need it. These patients often loudly claim that they must have a reduction in fees or they will not be able to pay. Yet they may be well dressed and arrive in nice vehicles. Dr. Sujith Varghese of BCH often has to stand up to these patients who threaten to bring in the press or government officials to get their way.

A hospital staff member must determine a family’s financial ability to pay. He sits down with the family and assesses several factors to determine their need. Often the poor have very rough speech and ragged clothing when they come to the hospital. The kind of transportation they use to get there is another factor that is assessed. And their caste is still a factor as well. From all of this information, the staff member decides how much aid a family needs. Sometimes almost the whole bill is written off. Another issue is that entire families often come to the hospital with the patient, and they stay on the grounds, caring for and providing food for the patient. The nurses keep their ears open, and sometimes discover families who have nothing to eat while they stay and care for their loved one, and can offer them food assistance. Great discernment is needed to make sure each patient pays a fair amount.

In 2008, when Dr. Sujith Varghese Thomas and Dr. Sunitha Varghese came to Broadwell Christian Hospital in Fatehpur, they found extensive corruption and cheating. There was a severe lack of trust between people due to widespread deception. They found people in ministry toiling in various parts of the district, often discouraged by the lack of progress. One fact became clear to them: Fatehpur District could not be reached by an individual, a group, an organization, or even a community. It had to be everyone moving together to repair the damage caused by years of strife, distrust, and conflict. 

As the staff of BCH began to pray, Sujith began to talk about united intercession with pastors and Christian leaders in the area. In October of 2008, 120 people from various organizations and denominations came together to intercede for each other and the land of Fatehpur. Five years later, they are still gathering every Sunday to pray together. God has used this time to bond them, to draw them closer to Him, and to allow them to share burdens and struggles. The result—they are seeing God answer united prayer.

They can now see the big picture of ministry in the area and have a united sense of purpose and ownership. They have seen significant church growth in the communities, and the beginnings of revival have spread through the area despite persecution, discrimination, and rejection. Broadwell Christian Hospital was able to get its statutory requirements met with no bribes being paid, which was thought to be impossible. The number of patients at the hospital has steadily increased, and the building often has been used as a community meeting place. Hospital staff have trained many area pastors in basic healthcare to enable them to educate and sometimes treat people with common illnesses. All of these changes have brought unity and effectiveness in ministry to the area of Fatehpur, and the staff at BCH is thrilled to see God’s hand at work in their land.

Ten-year-old Radha was brought into Broadwell Christian Hospital with pain and swelling in her right leg. Her calf had a large open wound that was leaking a heavy discharge. Radha’s father did not seem to understand the seriousness of her situation, as the disease had spread over her whole lower limb over the course of two days. Febrile and breathless, Radha was in septic shock and her kidneys were shutting down. The EHA team had to act fast to treat this serious infection, or it would be lethal for Radha.

The staff explained the situation to the father, and he was relieved that they could treat his daughter since he could not afford to take her to a more specialized facility. The doctors did emergency surgery to remove the infected tissue, and with antibiotics and frequent wound care, Radha slowly improved and her kidneys came back to life.

But then Radha had to undergo multiple dressings for the wound to heal. She was a very cooperative patient, and eventually the doctors performed a skin graft to cover the whole wound. Today, Radha is a happy, active, ten-year-old girl whose leg is completely healed. The love of God was shared with Radha and her father, and he is now learning more about the God who loves us much more than even a father can love his daughter.