EHA’s Lalitpur Hospital, Harriet Benson Memorial (HBMH), is a glowing example of the deep commitment EHA personnel bring to their work. Desperately short of staff at all levels, the team still manages to serve more than 10,000 patients each year. More importantly, with additional personnel and financial resources, the hospital has great potential for wide impact in the Lalitpur community. As an indication of the hospital’s extensive influence, it is believed that about 80 percent of the people who live in Lalitpur were born at HBMH.

Much of their income currently comes from lab services performed (9,000 annually) and ultrasounds provided (1,600-2,300 annually), and they recently began offering cancer screening for women. Because they currently have no OB/GYN, they are not allowed to deliver babies, which would be a consistent source of income for them.

They have a fully equipped audiology department but need an audiologist. They have the facilities for eye surgery, but have had to rely on outside surgeons to come in and operate for their eye camps. They run a number of community outreach programs including eye screening, orthopedic camps, general health camps, and health/demographic surveys. Their palliative care team conducts 800 home visits each year.

The HBMH staff have been able to complete a number of facility improvements in the last several years, including paving the courtyard, installing a diesel generator and an oxygen generation plant, and upgrading the wards with new beds that each have oxygen piped to them.

The biggest challenge currently facing HBMH is low patient numbers, which has caused them to fall five months behind on salaries for all staff. There are actually people called touts who stand at the entrance to HBMH and tell people to go to the local government hospital across the street instead—in spite of the fact that the government hospital would likely charge more than patients can afford. There is a great need for more medical staff at the hospital which would open up the services they are able to offer. And there are a number of facility improvements needed as well as equipment that should be updated.

There is great potential at HBMH, and your support would go a long way toward meeting these needs. Thank you for your generosity.

The couple had anxiously awaited the birth of their child, and they were thrilled when they saw it was a son. But when they gazed into his tiny face, they grew alarmed. They could see that his upper lip was split, and they did not understand what was wrong. The government doctors explained his condition, but when the parents heard the words “cleft lip and palate,” their dismay only grew. The couple was embarrassed by his deformity, and their son would not even be able to smile.

The parents were also afraid they would need to spend their life savings on surgery at a specialized hospital. But at the boy’s one-year medical visit, their pediatrician recommended the local missionary hospital. Finally feeling some hope for their son’s future, the couple approached the doctors at Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital. The mother’s question wrung the doctors’ hearts—“Will my child ever be able to smile?” Clasping her hands, the doctors assured her that he would, and that they would be charged only what they could afford. Still somewhat doubtful, the parents agreed to the recommended surgery.

The doctors examined the child, and surgery to repair his cleft lip was scheduled for the following day. The procedure went smoothly with no complications. Today the scar is almost invisible and the boy’s smile has bloomed. Smiles have also returned for his parents and community members who are so pleased with the care he received. The boy will require a second surgery in six months to repair his palate, but the parents have no fear, and the thought of this final procedure and the results it will provide brings a smile to the entire HBMH staff.

One of HBMH’s community development programs is the Baar Watershed Program. The initial project addressed an area of 15 villages encompassing 200 acres of land that was not arable. The dry land did not produce enough food to feed the people, and the men could not find enough work to support their families, so most of them traveled to cities to live and work.

Through the efforts of the program, 92 acres of land are now richly producing crops, thanks to improved water retention and irrigation, as well as better agricultural techniques. About 150 families now have improved food security due to these efforts, and the percentage of men migrating to work in cities has been reduced by a whopping 92 percent. Projects like this one make a tremendous difference in educating villagers and improving their life situation.

Until HBMH gets some surgical, obstetric, and orthopedic equipment, they will be limited in the services they can offer. With three specialists now on staff, it is a waste of their skills not to have the tools they need. Their biggest needs are listed below:

$14,000 Ventilator (need several)
$6,300 Surgical instruments
$4,700 Orthopedic drill and saw
$3,900 ICU monitor (need several)
$2,350 Operating room lights
$785 Obstetric vacuum kit
$785 Syringe pump (need several)
$470 Infusion pump (need several)

If you feel led to help HBMH purchase this needed equipment, click the button below and choose a piece of equipment for HBMH in the drop-down menu.

In the past, Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital (HBMH) was known for safe deliveries, eye surgery, palliative care, and community-based projects throughout the district. But in recent years, HBMH almost closed its doors. With minimal staff and a single doctor, the hospital’s bed occupancy fell to less than three percent. The once busy ophthalmology department stood empty, and deliveries and pediatric care were halted due to a lack of specialists required by the government.

At the end of 2019, HBMH received a huge blessing when Dr. Rachel Kumar came to take over the obstetrics department. Early in 2020 the arrival of husband-and-wife team Dr. Thomas Kurien Bhanu, orthopedic surgeon, and Dr. Madhurita Singh, anesthetist specializing in critical care (pictured below with their daughter), strengthened the hospital’s services. With the arrival of an intensive care specialist, the High Dependency Unit (similar to an ER) is ready to be put to use, while needing updated equipment and additional trained staff.

The staff of HBMH are excited for the possibilities and are praying for needed equipment and more staff to bring the hospital back to full functioning. They need monitors, ventilators, and surgical/orthopedic instruments and equipment. If you feel led to donate to these needs, please click the button above and choose HBMH in the drop-down list on the donation page.

Suresh could not walk, speak, or hear properly when he was brought into EHA’s Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital. He had been through a horrific accident where he was dragged by a vehicle for some distance, losing much of the skin on his side and thigh. His parents brought him in, desperate for healing for their son. Thankfully, the man who had driven the vehicle in the accident agreed to pay for part of the medical treatment. Otherwise, the parents would have struggled to pay the hospital bills.

After much medical care, Suresh was stabilized and strengthened. As is sometimes the case, one EHA hospital will have a specialist that another one doesn’t have, so in this case, Suresh was sent with Dr. Sujith to Broadwell Christian Hospital for two skin grafts. Suresh’s healing was dramatic, and he is now able to walk. Please pray for this young boy and his parents as they continue to walk on the road to recovery.