Beth and Ben in Malawi

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Beth and Ben in Malawi

We're Beth and Ben, a trauma surgeon and a psychotherapist. They are partnering with the Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC) as their sending organization.

Our mission is to build capacity for advanced surgical and mental health care in an area of great need, Malawi. Beth has joined the surgical staff at Nkhoma Mission Hospital outside Lilongwe and is helping in the development of an intensive care unit. This will allow Nkhoma to offer more complex surgeries to support a surgical residency program for future Malawian surgeons. The residency is under PAACS (Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons) and started in January 2022. Ben is continuing his US based psychotherapy practice part time, as well as finding the best use of his diverse skills set which may be doing something else in the field of mental health or assisting in technology development. For more info on this and how to support our mission, please see:
https://www.healthservicecorps.org/author/stuebingadams/

To sign up for our newsletter, please visit:
https://bnbinmalawi.mailchimpsites.com/

08/08/2025

Back to work! - kinda. ICU rounds with some of my favorite people was a great way to get back to life at the hospital. I won't be back full time for another 10 days. Recovery is slow but going in the right direction. Thank you for all your continued prayers and support!

28/07/2025

Reunited with my work family! They threw a "welcome back and thanks for not dying" party, or at least that's what I'm calling it. 😉 So good to see everyone, even if I look and feel 20 years older. Please keep the Nkhoma surgery department in prayer as they are more short staffed than planned while I'm recovering at home.

17/07/2025

HOME AT LAST! Thanks to all who have been praying us through the past 2 weeks events. I am finally home in Malawi after spine surgery in South Africa. I arrived the same day as our new puppy 🐶

2 weeks since the accident and in that time:
6 African countries visited
4 sim cards
8 currencies used
At least 10 pills a day
3 "fit to fly" certificates, which was somehow still not enough for Kenya Airways at 1am, resulting in international conference calls to let me just come home

Please pray my voice returns to normal soon after the stress of surgery on the voice box nerves, plus the late night negotiating with the less than helpful Kenya Airways staff. I have 6 weeks of wearing this attractive neck contraption while the bones heal.

12/07/2025

Discharged from the hospital! Thanks to my neurosurgeon, Dr Victor, and the love and support from around the world, I am on my way to a full recovery! I'll remain here in South Africa at a friend's house for a couple days and then fly home to Malawi where Ben and the kids are eagerly awaiting my return.

Thank you to all who have prayed, sent messages of support, and donated towards finding a replacement vehicle. We feel very cared for by our global family.

09/07/2025

BIG 🐘 and URGENT 🚑 news!
Our family went on a long-awaited holiday. While driving at night in Botswana, we met a huge elephant in our lane. I was able to avoid the elephant but lost control of the vehicle, and it flipped several times, once landing above my head with the weight of the car (a 2500kg Toyota Prado). By God's grace (and high protection booster seats), all 3 kids were completely spared, and Ben just lost a tooth and has some jaw pain. I, however, was bleeding from a large scalp laceration and had severe pain in my neck, though able to move. I first went to a public hospital in Botswana to stitch up my head. I needed a CT scan, and the closest was across the border in Zambia, so off we all went the next evening. I got the CT Saturday morning and sent the pictures to doctor friends while we continued our itinerary into Zimbabwe. Turns out, I had several spine fractures that needed an MRI and likely surgery. And a safer collar to stabilize my neck. I was able to get that, plus some new styles, thanks to another very savvy driver. I then was flown to Cape Town, South Africa, to a trauma center and will be getting spinal fusion in the next couple days. Ben and the kids have continued the holiday mostly to limit the trauma for the kids.

Our global village has been amazing. We've had input and help from 9 countries and 4 continents - from reading CT scans to organizing a host of vehicles and drivers across 4 countries in 4 days! Special shout out to Innocent and his team at for the logistics gymnastics of 3 crazy kids, tired dad, and mom with a broken neck!

How can you help? Pray my surgery is soon and successful. And help us buy a new car, which will probably be tens of thousands of dollars. If you're in the US, you can send a tax deductible gift by texting bbsa to 50155. You can also go to the link in our bio.

We were called to Malawi in part to help improve access to trauma care and emergency surgery. I guess I should have clarified to God that I wanted to teach that instead of be the one needing it!

05/07/2025

Congratulations to our residents, Dr Ngwira and Dr Kumwembe, and faculty advisor Dr Widmann on their presentations at the Surgical Association of Malawi. They shared about Nkhoma's experience in laparoscopic surgery and in opening our ICU - both impressive accomplishments in resource poor contexts like Malawi.

25/06/2025

It's bragging time - about our residents! They recently took the annual PAACS exam, which is notoriously difficult and has a significant failure rate. ALL our Nkhoma surgery residents passed! 🥳🥳

And special shout out to these two, Dr Chimkonda and Dr Mumba, who went into beast mode and scored over 20 percentage points above the passing mark! 🤯👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

We are so incredibly proud of all our residents. Thank you to everyone who makes this training program possible and for people like me to have the privilege of training these amazing doctors. 🙏

17/06/2025

Which bacteria is making our patient sick? This has remained a mystery since we don't have the ability to do blood cultures (seeing what bug is growing in the blood). So Nkhoma Hospital is very excited to be part of a World Health Organization study doing exactly that. Here, surgical consultant Dr Limbe and surgical ward charge nurse Ibrahim explain the protocol on how to screen and enroll potential patients. Our patients will benefit and we will learn a lot in how to be a research institution.

13/06/2025

Best faculty on the planet! We are rarely all 5 together, but we are never apart in spirit. We hold at least 6 different passports, speak at least 6 languages fluently, but love each other like family. Grateful for them, today and always ❤️

05/06/2025

Honored to be a part of United States National Day celebrations at the US Ambassador's residence last week. Chargé Diaz has been very supportive of our work at Nkhoma Hospital, as have the embassy clinic staff over the years.

🇲🇼🇺🇸🫱🏿‍🫲🏽

30/05/2025

Run out of ultrasound gel? Dr Beth's concoction from home grown aloe vera to the rescue! Gotta keep it creative over here when shortages abound.

26/05/2025

What's surgery residency like? ... this right here. First year, Dr Roma Ngwira, started her weekend call like this - talking to the operating room, the ER (casualty), and her consultant (me), all at the same time. Then she spent the weekend caring for patients at all hours of the day and night. And was still smiling by Monday morning! We are so very blessed to train such amazing doctors ❤️

Address

Lilongwe

Website

https://www.healthservicecorps.org/staff/beth-stuebing-ben-adams/

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