Sometimes it is easy for us to take for given our access to even basic health care in the United States. We enjoy the luxury of even simple medical care like discomfort medicine and Neosporine as well as the ability to get casts for broken braches and stitches for gaping wounds. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, the medical care is limited both in the quality of the therapy as well as the number of facilities that can offer treatment. Sadly, as a result, many people pass away needlessly before they are able to receive also basic medical treatment.

(Image: https://freestocks.org/fs/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/baby_in_a_basket-1000x667.jpg)At the JFK Memorial service Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia, a person limped into the emergency room. He lived in a remote part of Liberia and had gotten bit by a poisonous snake while working in a field. Since no proper medical clinic was close by, he first visited the witch doctor who basically just applied manure to his leg. After their leg only got worse and never better, he walked two days to the hospital for treatment. By the time this individual arrived, his leg was so swollen that he could barely walk. He desperately needed the proper anti-venom to counter-act the poison that had already worked its way through his body. He was immediately treated for the snake nip but he needed to have the lower-leg that had turned gangrene amputated. Because in his culture he would end up being viewed as worthless if he did not have his leg he would rather die than have his leg amputated. His condition worsened and died hours later.

It is heartbreaking experiences like this that inspired the medical mission nonprofit based in Wichita, Kansas, Hospitals of Hope, to find an innovative and practical way to provide the essential medical care that is needed around the world.

Probably the most exciting ways they work to avoid unnecessary deaths and give quality health care is with the Clinic in a Can program. Clinic in a Cans are usually self-contained medical clinics built in 40-foot shipping containers that can be sent almost anywhere in the world, creating an instant, fully-equipped medical clinic.

The typical Clinic in a Can consists of two exam rooms, a laboratory, and a mechanical room having a generator and water system. The generator and water system permit the clinic function and be sent nearly anywhere and not be dependent on nearby electricity or water supply.

Treatment centers have also been modified to contain a teeth room, a radiology suite, or even a surgical suite. A total of 10 container clinics have already been sent to Haiti and South Sudan.

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