2016: Samaritan’s Purse sends a mobile medical facility in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake in Ecuador.
Samaritan’s Purse first deployed its Emergency Field Hospital in April 2016 after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated Ecuador, killing more than 600 people and injuring more than 6,000 others. It was the deadliest earthquake to strike the nation since 1987.
We airlifted the mobile hospital to Ecuador on the inaugural flight of our DC-8 cargo plane. Our team had an operating room and emergency room up and running less than 11 hours after the DC-8 arrived in country.
Our team performed 287 surgeries in Ecuador.
More than 100 Samaritan’s Purse medical professionals served at the Emergency Field Hospital where they treated 1,285 patients and performed 287 surgeries, 237 of which were major operations.
Since the inaugural deployment to Ecuador, the field hospital has become an integral component of Samaritan’s Purse disaster response efforts. We can send the mobile facility at a moment’s notice to provide emergency medical relief in disaster-stricken areas where medical infrastructure is damaged, overwhelmed, or nonexistent.
Our teams who deploy with the mobile hospital are ready to provide excellent, compassionate care in Jesus’ Name to patients in desperate need.
At maximum capacity, the Emergency Field Hospital can treat more than 100 patients, perform 15 to 25 surgeries daily, and function as a full hospital. The facility includes—at maximum capacity—an emergency room, laboratory, inpatient beds, critical care unit, surgical sterilization tent, operating rooms, and ultrasound and digital X-ray equipment.
About eight months after Ecuador, Samaritan’s Purse sent an Emergency Field Hospital to Iraq as security forces and ISIS fighters were battling for control of Mosul. Located just 11 miles from the frontlines, we provided emergency trauma care to more than 4,000 victims of war and performed more than 1,700 major surgeries.
Franklin Graham was in Greensboro for the DC-8 airlift of the field hospital to Ecuador.
In 2019, we deployed the field hospital to both Mozambique and the Bahamas. Cyclone Idai ripped through Buzi, Mozambique, and damaged the only local hospital, which left expectant mothers without a safe place to deliver their babies. Samaritan’s Purse constructed the Emergency Field Hospital with multiple maternal wards and an operating room to perform emergency C-sections to help meet this need. In addition to delivering 40 babies, 17 through C-sections, our medical staff treated more than 5,700 patients at the facility.
Likewise, after Category 5 Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, we deployed an Emergency Field Hospital to Freeport, where we assisted a large regional hospital that had been crippled by the deadly storm. Our teams treated more than 8,000 patients with critical medical needs following the hurricane.
Our Emergency Field Hospital’s flexible design allows us to mount our medical responses based on the unique needs of each disaster or crisis situation. Most recently we deployed field hospitals equipped with specialized respiratory care units to help treat COVID-19 patients in both Cremona, Italy, and New York City, as these locations quickly became epicenters of the coronavirus in Europe and the United States.
We praise God for the thousands of people who have received relief from physical suffering and who have heard the message of eternal hope in Jesus Christ through our field hospitals.
