During our spring of 2000 as we were returning to the capitol of Bamako we met a neonatologist by the name of Tatiana Keita at the main hospital, Gabriel Toure. She pointed out to me that the country of Mali has virtually no equipment to life support very sick babies. During that trip I was asked “…can you bring us some baby ventilators for our babies dying of pneumonia” . I naively said “sure” we can bring back some ventilators and life support equipment. I had no idea where we were going to find such things.

We were blessed in the fact that Iowa Health System was phasing out some very good simple baby ventilators . The population of east Polk county, East Des Moines and several benefactors donated funds to purchase approximately 700 pounds of life support equipment and spare parts. This included air compressors, IV pumps, Pulse Oximeters, infant blood pressure and heart rate monitors. This was a very precious gift. In the interim Dr. Keita trained in France to operate these ventilators. Over Christmas of the year 2000 we flew to Mali, West Africa. We installed the equipment, trained personnel and had babies on life support by the time we left.

To this day, we can not realize the scope and positive impact to the many infant lives affected. We spent our Christmas in the village of Nana Kenieba. Our host had hidden a satellite telephone in the vehicle and the highlight of our Christmas was to speak to our family from the remote bush of West Africa. What a thrill.

This trip taught us a profound lesion. Don’t ever underestimate the good a small group of determined people can place upon a population at the “edge of existence”.