Hi Everyone,
Are you on Facebook? Did you know Glory Reborn is to?
Well for the next 18 days, Glory Reborn has a chance to win $250,000.00 in the Chase Community Giving contest. Just visit our page, add the application and vote for Glory Reborn!
Here is the link:
http://bit.ly/grchase
Thanks for the vote, and please spread the word to your friends!
Glory Reborn embarked on an exciting journey in May. We had our very first blood drive at our clinic. We partnered with the Philippine National Red Cross to help collect life saving blood. After many weeks of preparing we had four local churches represented at the blood drive and many relatives of patients enrolled in the Glory Reborn pregnancy program. Together we were able to collect 36 bags of healthy blood. We should note that more than 60 donors came to the event however many of us women were turned down due to anemia…but we tried! This event was particularly important as each month Glory Reborn has patients in need of cesarean section deliveries. Prior to undergoing surgery a minimum of
one bag of blood must be secured and at the hospital ready to be used if the need arises. By partnering with Red Cross, Glory Reborn is stocking blood that can be used for patients who would need a cesarean delivery. We look forward to continuing to partner with the local Red Cross in the future and are happy that our first blood drive at Glory Reborn was a success!
We were able to secure the first bag of blood for a first time mother who was in labor this week. Johna came to the clinic in early labor on a Friday morning. During an initial check of she and the baby it was discovered that the babyʼs heart beat had some episodes of decelerations below the normal range. As we tried to manage and continued to monitor there was not significant enough improvement of the babyʼs heart beat so we took her to the hospital where Glory Rebornʼs OB-GYN met us and ordered a cesarean section. Upon delivery it was noted that the baby boy, Kyle, had his umbilical cord pinched up against the motherʼs womb and an abnormality with his lungs proved to be quite serious. Currently baby Kyle is on a ventilator and being cared for by Glory Rebornʼs Pediatrician. We are believing that Kyle can continue to grow stronger and overcome the congenital defect. Glory Reborn would like to continue to keep Kyle under the care of our pediatrician at a private facility but would like to ask for your continued prayers. We are so thankful for having found doctors that are willing to help us save the lives of babies and mommies that otherwise would have to deliver their infants at home, perhaps in a dumpsite or in a graveyard. We are thankful for each and every little life and for the opportunity that we have, together, to bring a hope and future to them. For some itʼs through extended medical care for others its holding their hand through loss and being a shoulder to cry on, and for the moments that we share in the joy of a long awaited little miracle. We canʼt say thank you enough to each of you for being the support system to thousands of Filipino families, mommies and babies like Johna and Kyle who have found hope and help in a time of trouble. Just as Jesus has found us and brought us an eternal hope what a wonderful thing to share in a small way a practical hope to oh so many precious lives.
See a video highlight of the Life is in the Blood Event:
We are so thankful to expand our services this month and help screen for anomalies like Kyleʼs on a routine basis at Glory Reborn. Due to your faithful donations Glory Reborn was able to purchase an additional probe for our ultrasound machine. This will allow us to more accurately assess the expected due dates and scan for anomalies for each and every one of our mommies.
May was also an exciting month for me as I was able to help a dear friend deliver her fourth baby. Having been apart of her last two deliveries I was happy to have made it back to Cebu just a few hours before she delivered another precious baby boy! Itʼs always wonderful when we have patients come back and deliver with us multiple times. I canʼt believe that the babies I helped deliver for her are already 9, 6, and one month old. My how time flies. I am so thankful to be able to be a part of such a very special moment in so many precious familyʼs lives.
As you know we had a recent fundraising trip to the US, and it was extremely successful. We were able to raise $19,261.65 through all of your generosity! This allowed us to purchase some much needed equipment as well as raise a good portion of our annual budget. This combined with the donations we have received up to May 1, 2010 totals to over $50,000! We are on track to meet our annual budget. We cannot express how appreciative we are for this support and we are excited about the opportunities that 2010 will bring. 
As we mentioned in our past newsletters as well as our presentation, one of the key areas is growth into a new facility. We will be sharing more on this as well as creating a separate campaign for it. Many of you mentioned this topic while we were in the US, and we are so excited about the interest. We are looking for not only funding, but for individuals or groups that would partner with us in planning, designing, and overseeing the project. If you or someone you know would want more information on how to be apart of this campaign, please email us and we will keep you updated. We will also continue to update you on this campaign via our regular newsletter.
Many of you know about our website and maybe even some of you know that you can receive your newsletter via email, but did you know that you could also partner with Glory Reborn online via Twitter and Facebook?
While Facebook has some security issues that they are working on, it has been an amazing success for Glory Reborn. Through the Causes application, we have not only raised awareness about our Cause, but we have also raised over $10,000 in 2009! We are developing and working on updates to include on Facebook and Twitter and encourage you to partner with us on these platforms and share Glory Reborn with your friends!
http://facebook.com/gloryreborn
Glory Reborn was recently visited by Meagen Kelly, a media fellow at Dekeyser & Friends. She produced a video on Inspiration and featured Glory Reborn, as well as a very dear friend of ours in Cebu, Father Heinze Kuluke. Please visit their site and watch the video. I hope you are all inspired by it!
On May 29, 2010, Glory Reborn hosted our 1st blood drive in partnership with the Philippine National Red Cross. We invited the relatives of our moms, local groups and churches to come out and donate blood to save lives. We were able to get 36 bags of blood donated!
A huge thanks to everyone who came out and donated.
Here is a short video of the event:
Life is in the Blood from David Overton on Vimeo.
At Glory Reborn, we see a majority of patients who have no other options during their pregnancy. Some come to us happy and jubilant, others come to us in tears and in dire situations. We are here to provide them with tangible healthcare that they can rely on, and for the majority of our patients, we try to give them at least a glimmer of hope before they leave.
We do however have limitations on the care that we can give and therefore we are caught in the reality of the developing world. In an ideal world, these women would have access to high-quality, affordable healthcare when they need procedures that we cannot provide. In this real world, they can only afford to be treated at the public hospital, which provides the best they can, however it is sub-par care. On a daily basis, we often have to deal with these situations and make decisions that involve the lives of our patients in the frustrating gray area between ideals and reality. We had one such situation this week.
A mom name Johna came to us during her pregnancy and was happy to be at Glory Reborn, however during her labor this past Friday we learned that the baby’s heartbeat showed decelerations below the normal range. This was manageable if there would be an improvement. However after close monitoring at the clinic there was not an improvement, so she needed to be transported. Hilary was with her and she called me and said, “David, we have this situation, what should we do?”. Which basically meant that we had to make a decision from the gray area, do we just let the hardship of reality take affect and have a negative outcome. Or do we intervene and hope that the patient as well as our charity program could cover the cost. Quite literally this mom’s and baby’s lives were in our hands, and a decision had to be made. We decided to go with our ideals and had the patient admitted to the private hospital. The family said they would try to pay and our doctor would not charge us, and we have a memorandum of understanding with the hospital in which all of our patients will get a discount.
Johna had a cesarian section and she was stable. However, after birth, the doctors noticed some problems with baby Kyle. He was quickly rushed into
the NICU, and his life was being supported by a ventilator. After an extensive workup he was diagnosed with a congenital pulmonary abnormality that was life threatening. Tragically, in spite of the best care that the doctors and hospital could provide, Kyle passed away Saturday night. Sometimes, even when we chose ideals, the reality still overwhelms the situation.
We share this story with you to give you a little glimpse into the situation that we face daily at Glory Reborn, but also a real glimpse the situation of Johna and a chance to respond. She has been through quite a bit, and our social worker and counselors are visiting her daily. She and her parents have raised as much money as they can, and we would like to ask for you help with this situation. After all the discounts and pro bono work from our doctor, due to Kyle’s complications the total due is nearly $2,500.00 We would like to share this financial burden with our patient, and would like to see if you would partner with us and with Johna in this very real and practical way.
