The months of May to August – non-stop highlights
In the second trimester, the focus was on the daily routine. Through a series of audiences with political dignitaries, we were able to pull some hot potatoes out of the fire. The Diospi Suyana Hospital is the only one of its kind in Peru and certainly the most modern missionary hospital in Latin America.
The four patients in the picture above live many hundreds of kilometers apart. They all traveled to Curahuasi to be operated on by our urologist, Dr. Zeier. They were attracted by the hospital’s good reputation. Of course, Diospi Suyana also offers the poor patients the best prices in the country and can boast excellent results.
Martin and Adelheid Seegräber have been supporters of Diospi Suyana for many years. The two had prepared a lecture with Dr. John for May 12 at the Protestant Community Center in Brackenheim. And they were very inviting.
The couple Uli Peter and Inge Wolfinger were mysteriously seated among the 120 listeners. The directors of the Paula Foundation from Hamburg had already supported half of the purchase of a new truck for Diospi Suyana. Now, for the first time, you saw with your own eyes what Diospi Suyana was all about. After this evening the foundation doubled its aid for Diospi Suyana.
A certain Klaus Steckkönig and his wife Dr. Annette Steckkönig had already made their friends aware of Diospi Suyana years ago. – The curious thing is this: Diospi Suyana had previously tried in vain to arrange an appointment in Hamburg, Northern Germany. Then the heads of the foundation suddenly turned up for a presentation in southern Germany. And we had no idea.
The truck can do everything: it drives, tips, honks and transports.
Martin Gundlach has accompanied the Johns since 2004. At the time, he devoted six full pages to a “family of doctors who moved to the Indians”. The article in “Family” catapulted Diospi Suyana into the limelight of a Christian readership and shortly afterwards into the secular press. Gundlach followed up in May of this year. He titled the four pages: “An experiment with God”. Was the Johns’ life really a test of whether God really exists? You make the judgment. You can find the report in the press review below.
Maximiliana is a simple farmer’s wife from southern Peru. One and a half years ago, the mother of eight children noticed an increasing swelling in her abdomen that moved rhythmically with her heartbeat. “I must be suffering from cancer,” thought Maximiliana. As her anxiety grew with the tumor, she made the trip to Diospi Suyana Mission Hospital. The true diagnosis was an 11 cm aortic aneurysm, a time bomb that could burst at any time. On June 1, a team led by our vascular surgeon, Dr. Thomas Tielmann, operated on the patient. The procedure lasted five and a half hours and was without complications.
On June 14, the staff of the Diospi Suyana Hospital honored the arrival of the 500,000th patient. Fernando Ccarita had no idea during his 12-hour drive from a small town near the city of Puerto Maldonado that he would be making history at noon in Curahuasi. On the recommendation of his wife, Pascuala Astomolina, with whom he has six children together, he sought medical attention at the hospital’s emergency room.
Our star patient received a gift basket full of surprises during the festive ceremony in the hospital church. His treatment costs were covered by the Diospi Suyana Hospital.
Just one day after the 500,000th patient was treated at the mission hospital, a meeting took place in Lima’s government palace between the head of government, Dina Boluarte, and a delegation from Diospi Suyana. The meeting took place at the Salon Mariscal Avelino Cáceres.
In his presentation, Dr. Klaus John took the audience through the past 20 years. The existence and success of the hospital is a clear indication of the reality of God, he said. The president said she had heard many good things about Diospi Suyana Hospital for many years. She would like to visit the hospital in Curahuasi.
This audience led to further important discussions with high-ranking politicians over the course of the year, which proved to be beneficial for Diospi Suyana.
Lucila worked in the field as she had done so often in her life before. The 58-year-old is the mother of eight children and makes a living working in the fields. Nearby, two cows got into a fight and in the confusion she was knocked over. She tumbled backwards and unfortunately fell down over a wall. The pain was almost unbearable. At the Diospi Suyana Hospital, X-rays of the back showed an unstable fracture of the 11th thoracic vertebra. Any further violence could have resulted in paraplegia with paralysis of the lower limbs.
Traumatologist Dr. Fritz Meiswinkel and his team performed the necessary operation. The spinal column is now fixed again with titanium rods and the spinal cord is secured.
September 11, 2022: A new law is enacted in Peru that will severely limit the number of blood banks (type 2) in the future. The blood bank of the Diospi Suyana hospital was also to fall victim to this questionable law. In plain language, this meant that our mission hospital would no longer be able to generate blood from donors and test it immediately. Our doctors in the operating rooms or in the intensive care unit would have to wait for the blood supplies from Cusco or Abancay. Many a patient would die during this waiting time of 8 – 10 hours.
Emails and letters went back and forth between the National Blood Bank (Pronahebas) and the Hospital Diospi Suyana. More than six months have passed. The missionary doctors John made two visits to Pronahebas) in Lima. But it didn’t help. No solution was in sight.
June 15, 2023. But when the head of state, Dina Boluarte, received the Diospi Suyana delegation in the palace, things were set in motion.
June 23, 2023. In the morning the investigative magazine “Caretas” (comparable to the German Spiegel) presented four pages about Diospi Suyana’s blood bank. One of the editors had visited our hospital for three days, read all the documents about the “Diospi Suyana blood bank” and wrote his opinion about this scandal. The avowed atheist Marco Zileri ended his report with the words: “The director and missionary doctor Dr. Klaus-Dieter John is now appealing to common sense before the highest authorities “For the sake of our Lord (Jesus) Christ”.
June 23, 2023. On the very same day, a meeting was held with the new Minister of Health, Dr. César Vásquez Sánchez, mediated by the Office of the President. Surprisingly, Dr. Juan Almeyda Cántara, Director of the National Blood Bank (Pronahebas), was also in the meeting room. He was even featured in the Caretas magazine report. He had long since read the four pages. Now he thought it must be possible to find a solution in the near future.
Yesterday, December 29th, Diospi Suyana received written approval from Pronahebas for our type 2 blood bank for 4 years! From the President to the Minister. A few hours earlier, a long report appeared in the investigative magazine Caretas. Who is responsible for such timing? Certainly not the politicians. No, we are convinced that God himself was once again pulling the strings. SDG. /KDJ
On July 5th the Vice-Minister for Communication, Patricia Cristina Carreño Ferré, received a delegation from Diospi Suyana. This meeting was also thankfully organized by the office of President Dina Boluarte. When Dr. Klaus John, Doris Manco and lawyer Dr. Sandra Ramos left the imposing building three hours later, the solutions to three legal problems had been found.
The meeting with the Minister of Justice Dr. Daniel Ysau Maurate Romero on July 13th also gave Diospi Suyana a strong tailwind. For some years now, the Curahuasi city council has wanted to collect a property tax from the hospital. The Ministry of Justice has now issued two expert opinions on this issue: As a religious institution, the Ministry’s lawyers are convinced that we are exempt from this payment.
The Diospi Suyana School’s annual project week took place at the end of July. All students in grades 1 through 11 engaged in 17 topics offered. The upper picture shows environmentally friendly energy generation through hydropower. The ideas were bubbling. There was no lack of enthusiasm. Parents, teachers and the students themselves were amazed at the successful results.
In mid-August, a 7-year-old girl was admitted to hospital with life-threatening poisoning. Due to a mix-up, Sofia had taken the inconspicuous tablets with the active ingredient strychin at home. The child began convulsing immediately afterward and slipped into a coma. Strychnine can be fatal above a dose of 30 mg even for an adult human. On August 16, she was allowed to go home completely healthy.
It was a double blow in August. On August 8th and 25th Diospi Suyana acquired two plots of land totaling over 2000 m2 behind the Colegio Diospi Suyana. We hope that the construction of another school building will be completed by the end of 2025. The target number of pupils is 700.
Mount Imillay is located high above the plateau of Anta province. The driveway is a real challenge even for a four-wheel drive car. Setting up the antennas and equipment took many hours of time. But on August 29, (from left to right: top row) Roberto Palomino, Doris Manco, Donato Cabrera (bottom row) David Hanco, Victor Moreno and Lino Leiva stood proudly in front of the camera. They had carried out the order.
Diospi Suyana Radio is finally a reality in the province of Anta. We recommend the frequency 90.9 FM to everyone in the area, because that’s ours.
