X-ray machine on way to Ethiopia
If international airfreight is on time,
the prized portable X-ray machine that Wood River Valley resident Ryan Schmidt
desperately needs in his work among the poorest of poor in Ethiopia should be in
his hands next week.
The machine, bought through donations by
family and friends in Casper, Wyo., and former colleagues at St. Luke’s Wood
River Medical Center, was to arrive at Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa-Bole International
Airport Thursday. Schmidt is in Gimbie, a village some 250 miles by road west of
Addis Ababa.
The 150-pound, $10,800 digital SourceRay
SR-130 X-ray machine cost $1,200 to ship.
Schmidt, an X-ray technician on leave from
St. Luke’s who went to Ethiopia under the auspices of Adventist Health
International, is one of but a handful of professional health care specialists
working in the area among tragically under-served people whose life expectancy
is less than 50 years old.