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LAKHNADON CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL
Lakhnadon Christian Hospital Begins Again
Lakhnadon Christian Hospital (LCH) was founded over 100 years ago by Scottish missionaries in Lakhnadon, Madhya Pradesh in Central India, strategically located between the cities of Jabalpur and Nagpur along two major national highways. Previously, scarce medical care in this region forced mothers to travel long distances to give birth. Surgical illnesses went untreated, and preventable conditions often turned deadly.
Serving nearly 250,000 people across surrounding rural and tribal communities, LCH was a place of refuge and dignity for thousands of underserved families. However, the effects of staff shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to close. For several years, this loss of care was deeply felt in the surrounding communities. Despite growing healthcare demands, the region still endures a severe shortage of specialist and emergency medical services.
Clinical services gradually resumed in January 2022 through the support of partner organizations and the dedication of a new team of healthcare professionals. Today, the hospital is in a new phase of restoration and growth. A surgeon and a junior doctor have joined the team, allowing for trauma surgeries, general and laparoscopic procedures, and comprehensive inpatient care. The two doctors, plus nine nurses, are serving the community through mother and child health services, pediatrics, general medicine, and emergency treatments.
A needed renovation of inpatient wards and the operating room, along with the purchase of laparoscopic equipment and surgical instruments, has been funded by a grant from an Indian foundation. But Lakhnadon still needs to replace their outpatient building and add more housing for nursing staff, along with acquiring quite a few types of diagnostic and treatment equipment in order to give their patients quality care.
LCH staff serve today with the same spirit that inspired its founders over a century ago: compassion for the poor, integrity in service, and a faith-driven commitment to healing.
We invite you to partner with LCH at this crucial moment in its history—restoring hope and transforming lives through accessible and compassionate healthcare for rural India.
READ THE LCH NEWSLETTER
Row 1: Dr. Stephen, Dr. Riya, and Nurse Supervisor Mrs. Shantsheela
Row 2: LCH nurses and technicians
Husband and wife team Dr. Stephen and Dr. Riya
The Joy of New Birth:
Complicated Pregnancy Ends with Health Baby
by Dr. Stephen Tom Jude
Soniya, 23, waited with excitement for the arrival of her first baby. But at 27 weeks, that joy was shaken by news that her unborn child had severe intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Suddenly, uncertainty and fear overshadowed the pregnancy. Now she wondered if her child would even survive.
What followed was a long season of monitoring, waiting, and hoping—week after week of follow-up visits to LCH, each one a small victory. Then at 32 weeks, Soniya was rushed to the hospital with severe abdominal pain. With premature delivery and the baby’s condition uncertain, transfer to a facility with advanced care was advised.
But Soniya and her family refused. LCH wasn’t just another hospital—Soniya herself had been born within its walls, and it had served her family for generations. In their moment of fear, they chose to trust it again.
The team acted immediately: tocolysis to stop contractions, steroids to speed the baby’s lung development, and constant monitoring from Dr. Stephen and Dr. Riya. Against all expectations, the pregnancy continued for six more weeks.
At 38 weeks, Soniya’s tiny baby girl—breech, and weighing less than 4 pounds—was delivered by caesarean section. For a brief second, time stood still. Then she cried—and tears filled the eyes of doctors, nurses, and staff. What had once seemed impossible had become reality. Both mother and baby recovered well and went home without complications.
Soniya’s story is about more than a successful delivery. It’s about a family’s generational trust in a rural hospital—trust that kept doctors and nurses fighting even when the outcome was uncertain. It’s a reminder of why rural maternal and newborn care matters: in underserved communities, mothers often face pregnancy with limited access to specialists and emergency obstetric support. Yet timely care, close monitoring, and dedicated healthcare workers can change outcomes dramatically.
Burn Victim Saved at LCH:
Returning Home with Dignity, Hope, and the Opportunity to Rebuild a Life
by Dr. Stephen Tom Jude
Ram, 42, is a farmer who built a simple life around hard work and responsibility. Like many families in rural Madhya Pradesh, his livelihood depended on the cattle he raised—not merely animals, but his family’s income, security, and survival.
One evening, a fire broke out in his cattle shed. Hearing his animals’ terrified cries, Ram ran into the burning structure without thinking of his own safety. He got the animals out alive but suffered devastating injuries himself.
At the hospital, doctors found nearly 45% of his body burned. He was in severe pain, dehydrated, and critically vulnerable to infection. In the past, a patient like Ram would almost certainly have been referred to a distant, more advanced facility—hours of travel, overwhelming expense, and sometimes losing the patient before care even began. This time, things were different.
With renewed clinical services at LCH, the team chose to treat him there, close to family and community. What followed was days of relentless, compassionate care: carefully monitored fluids, repeated wound dressings, infection prevention, pain control, and round-the-clock attention to nutrition and vital signs—all driven by an exhausted but determined team of doctors and nurses.
Ram worried less about himself than about his family, his fields, and whether he’d work again. Slowly, signs of recovery appeared. His condition stabilized day by day, until he was discharged, stable, healing well, and free of the infections that so often complicate severe burns.
Most importantly, he returned home with dignity, hope, and the chance to rebuild his life and keep caring for his family. For LCH staff, this case reflects a quiet but significant transformation—cases once considered beyond a rural mission hospital’s capacity are now managed with confidence, continuity, and compassion, closer to home.
Areas of Focus to Renew Hope
- Renewed strength, wisdom, compassion, and endurance for all staff members
- Completion of the operating room construction funded by an Azim Premji grant
- Additional physicians—including an anesthetist, a pediatrician, an OB-GYN and a radiologist—plus more nurses
- Financial provision for several years of unpaid staff salaries ($48,000)
Prem Sewa Hospital
EHA’s Prem Sewa Hospital was founded in 1966 by the Central India Christian Mission. They began as a small clinic with 12 beds, but today they have 35 beds and a staff of 80, including 7 doctors, 24 nurses, and 7 paramedical staff.
In the course of a year, their outpatient department serves 45,000 patients, and approximately 950 are admitted to the inpatient department. Their OB/GYN department is kept busy delivering 1,200 babies each year.
Many of the hospital buildings are quite old and in need of renovation or replacement. The roof of their outpatient department is falling in, so that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Their equipment is also outdated, making diagnosis and medical care more difficult. They hope to add a new operating room, more staff housing, and solar-power panels to help with their intermittent electrical supply.
Champa Christian Hospital
Established 100 years ago, Champa Christian Hospital serves the poor and marginalized communities of the Janjgir-Champa District. Due to the unavailability of medical professionals over the last three years, the hospital has seen a significant decline in patient healthcare services, and their subsequent financial struggles have nearly brought them to closure.
However, with the addition of an OB/GYN doctor, a radiologist, and a senior administrator at Champa, steps are being taken to gradually improve the situation and work toward rebuilding the broken bond between the hospital and the community. They are focused on restoring patient confidence through compassionate, affordable, and dependable care.
Over the next few years, the team at Champa aims to rebuild the hospital around core secondary-care services that address the greatest needs of their community. Particular emphasis will be placed on maternal and child health, emergency care, diagnostics, radiology, palliative care, and affordable access to advanced investigations. They also intend to strengthen community outreach programs so that healthcare reaches vulnerable populations before illness becomes advanced and costly.
Champa’s long-term vision is not simply to increase patient numbers, but to ensure that quality healthcare remains accessible regardless of a patient’s financial circumstances. They want to build a hospital where clinical excellence, financial stewardship, and compassionate service work together so that no person is denied timely diagnosis or treatment because of poverty.
HARRIET BENSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Returning Hope and Healing to Lalitpur
Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital (HBMH) began in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh, as a mission station in 1890, and by 1934 a hospital offering regular medical work was in place. People in the surrounding area are very familiar with the hospital because many of them were born there!
Over the last few years, difficulty in recruiting and retaining doctors has severely limited the services offered, and therefore the income. Yet the nurses and support staff have faithfully continued to work, often with no pay. In 2025, the hospital’s outpatient department was closed for two months, and the inpatient department was closed for eight months. But also in 2025, a new general medicine physician, Dr. Sumeir, joined their team of seven nurses and has opened up new possibilities for more hospital services.
In India, only OB/GYNs are allowed to deliver babies, so the hospital staff have brought in a local consultant almost daily to provide this key service. Likewise, HBMH has an ophthalmology department but no specialist, so a visiting ophthalmologist has been coming in to operate during their eye camps twice a month.
The Palliative Care program at Harriet Benson is the oldest in EHA, and their small teams care for about 170 patients each month! The hospital also runs a Disability and Rehabilitation program in nearby communities, and this service is essential for many. The strength of these two programs is significant.
The immediate goals for the team at HBMH are to re-establish reliable inpatient services, increase outpatient and inpatient traffic, strengthen referral networks, and rebuild the hospital’s reputation as a trusted healthcare provider.
Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital remains committed to its mission of bringing hope, healing, and love to the people of Lalitpur. By God’s grace and through partners like you, we believe HBMH can once again become a thriving center of excellence that transforms lives and communities through compassionate healthcare.
Passing in Peace:
Palliative Care Team Enables a Good Death
Singh was a 60-year-old farmer in excruciating pain. Like many men in his community, Singh had spent decades chewing tobacco and smoking bidis. What began as a habit eventually led to a devastating illness—advanced oral cancer.
For months, he traveled to clinics and hospitals, seeking help for his condition. Eventually he was told he was not a candidate for surgery, and he retreated to his home, his money gone.
As the cancer progressed, Singh’s suffering became unimaginable. A large wound developed in his mouth. Pain made eating and speaking nearly impossible. The wound became infected, and maggots appeared. His family, already emotionally exhausted, did not know how to care for him.
It was at this critical stage that someone recommended Harriet Benson Memorial Hospital. When Singh arrived, he was immediately received by Dr. Sumeir. She saw a man who deserved comfort, dignity, and compassionate care. The team cleaned his wound, removed the maggots, and addressed his immediate suffering.
That moment changed everything. The Palliative Care nurses provided regular wound care and managed his pain at home so that he could rest comfortably and communicate with his family. In addition, the counselors and nurses spent hours listening to the family’s concerns, explaining the disease process, teaching caregiving skills, and helping the family prepare for the future.
They transformed fear into understanding and confusion into confidence.
With the family’s permission, members of their team also prayed with them during a time of deep uncertainty. The family later described these moments as a source of peace and strength when they needed it most.
Because of this comprehensive care, Singh’s final days were not defined by pain, fear, or isolation. They were defined by comfort. He was able to spend meaningful time with his loved ones. His family learned how to care for him with confidence and compassion. Difficult conversations were approached with honesty and support. And when the time came, Singh passed away peacefully, surrounded by those who loved him.
Following his death, our team continued to walk alongside the family through bereavement visits and emotional support.
Compassionate, Caring Childbirth:
One Young Mom Comes to Harriet Benson for Help
At Harriet Benson, every expectant mother is welcomed with dignity, compassion, and professionalism. Rani, a first-time mother, had not received care at HBMH during her pregnancy. But when she arrived in labor at 37 weeks pregnant, she was promptly assessed and supported by our skilled healthcare professionals. Through the coordinated efforts of their visiting OB/GYN, their general physician, and their nursing teams, she received comprehensive care and close monitoring throughout her labor. Everyone was thankful when Rani safely delivered a healthy baby girl through a normal delivery.
What began as an unexpected hospital visit ended in a joyful and memorable experience for the family. Today, both mother and daughter are healthy, thriving, and enjoying this precious new chapter of life together.
This successful outcome reflects the good maternity care provided at Harriet. The doctors, nurses, and support staff work tirelessly to ensure that every mother receives safe, respectful, and evidence-based care, regardless of her circumstances. Such dedication continues to earn the trust, appreciation, and recognition of the many patients and families HBMH serves.
Areas of Focus to Renew Hope
• Recruitment and retention of qualified healthcare professionals
• Increased patient trust and use of medical services
• Strength and encouragement for staff serving in challenging circumstances
• Financial provision for hospital sustainability
PREM JYOTI COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
Prem Jyoti Hopes to Stabilize and Rebuild
In 1996, Prem Jyoti Community Hospital (PJCH) was founded under the Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) to serve the Malto tribal community living in the hills around Barharwa, Jharkhand. When the hospital began, the Malto population was diminishing rapidly due to malaria, kala-azar (a parasitic disease), and tuberculosis. One of the first things the new doctors did was introduce mosquito nets and raise awareness of these diseases and their transmission. Over the last thirty years, PJCH has become an important source of healthcare for many marginalized families and is the only significant medical facility within a thirty-mile radius.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftereffects placed the hospital under severe financial strain and created a serious shortage of medical manpower. Like many mission hospitals serving remote and vulnerable communities, PJCH found it increasingly difficult to sustain services due to rising operational costs, reduced numbers of patients, and challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified healthcare professionals.
Currently, EHA’s Madhipura Christian Hospital (MCH) in Bihar is supporting PJCH through management guidance, administrative strengthening, and regular loaning of doctors and other medical personnel. This partnership has been helping PJCH stabilize services, rebuild community trust, and gradually improve patient traffic.
The medical team at PJCH includes an ophthalmologist (Dr. Ruhel), Dr. Bethany, an OB/GYN who delivers over 200 babies each year, a family physician (Dr. Blessy), a junior doctor (Dr. Elizabeth), and 25 nurses. The laboratory technicians are also quite busy, running over 25,000 tests annually. The palliative care team sees about 100 patients a year, conducting about 75 home visits each month, while the community health team runs 75 health camps at remote villages scattered throughout the surrounding area.
The leadership’s strategy is to strengthen PJCH into a sustainable, mission-driven healthcare institution while continuing to provide high-quality, affordable, and compassionate care to the poor and marginalized.
Some of their key goals include:
– Expanding surgical and diagnostic services
– Providing eye care and surgery
– Improving radiology and critical care infrastructure
– Building staff housing to help retain committed medical staff
Restoring Dignity, Hope, and Support:
Palliative Care Team Provides Medical Treatment, Food, and School Assistance
Deegen Malto was only twenty-seven years old when he fell from a tree and injured his spinal cord. Finding himself bedridden, he despaired of providing for his wife and four young children.
When the staff at PJCH heard about his difficult situation, the palliative care team immediately jumped in to help. During their home visits, the nurses delivered supportive care and made sure Deegan’s wife knew how best to care for him. Deegan later developed kidney-related complications and was referred to Madhipura for further treatment and structured rehabilitation. By God’s grace, Deegen’s condition improved, and he was able to return home.
At follow-up visits, the palliative care team learned that Deegen’s oldest son had discontinued school due to their financial difficulties. In addition to food staples and other basic needs, the team’s support made a way for this boy to return to school.
Starving for Help:
Malnourished Toddler Comes to PJCH
Many families in rural North India do not have enough to eat on a daily basis—a heartbreaking reality. And many parents simply don’t know what nutrients their children need to keep them healthy.
Vivek was only four years old when he was brought to PJCH. The medical staff was alarmed to see how malnourished he was. His family was unable to afford proper medical treatment or nutrition for him. As is so often the case with EHA, the hospital provided free care for him.
With continued treatment and nutritional support, Vivek gradually improved.
Even after his discharge, the hospital continues to support the family with follow-up nutritional care and basic food supplies to reduce the risk of relapse.
Today, Vivek is active, playful, and developing normally. The entire PJCH team is thrilled with his recovery.
Branded With a Hot Iron:
Barbaric Traditional Practice Harms Boy
Ten-year-old Sanju had been suffering from abdominal pain and vomiting for six long days when he was brought to PJCH. During the examination they lifted his shirt and found numerous burns from a branding iron, a barbaric practice rooted in the traditional belief that poking a person repeatedly with a hot iron will cure disease.
After careful diagnostics, Sanju was found to have an intestinal obstruction, a condition that requires surgery without delay. The family refused to go anywhere else, even though PJCH does not have a surgeon. So, a surgical team made the five-hour trip from Madhipura Christian Hospital to PJCH and operated on the boy.
Sanju completely recovered his health, and his relatives experienced the love and commitment of the hospital staff throughout this journey.
Areas of Focus to Renew Hope
– Wisdom, strength, and protection for their leadership and staff
– God’s provision for equipment, infrastructure, and operational needs
– Recruitment and retention of committed doctors, nurses, and support staff
– Financial provision for hospital sustainability and payment of outstanding staff salaries and liabilities
– Continued opportunity to serve poor and marginalized communities
