The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated medical equipment to two hospitals on July 31 to help improve health care in the city of San Pedro Sula and in northern Honduras.
The Church donated an X-ray system to Tela Hospital and a digital mammography machine to Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital. Both medical facilities are in San Pedro Sula.
The donation was announced in an article on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The X-ray system will provide accurate and timely medical diagnoses for thousands of patients needing care for orthopedic fractures and head injuries, as well as traumatic and chronic abdominal pathologies. Postoperative evaluations and treatment for trauma of any kind — including diabetic foot issues, osteomyelitis injuries and gangrene — will also be provided.
Gabriel Paredes, a physician at Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital, expressed gratitude for the digital mammography machine.
“This mammogram [machine] will allow [us], at least, to study all women with some risk factor, which is more preventive, and prevention allows us to address it in time and save lives,” Paredes said in the article.
Elder Patricio M. Giuffra, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s Central America Area presidency, said donations like this are an opportunity for Latter-day Saints to serve others as the Savior would.
“To us, the life of a human being is important and, as Christ said, ‘Whatever we do to one of the least of these, thy brethren, we did it unto Him,’” Elder Giuffra said.
The donation of the medical equipment comes more than a month after the Church and its members were recognized for their efforts to donate blood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and San Pedro Sula over a 20-year period.
The Church has also donated more than 1,200 wheelchairs and other items to local charitable organizations that serve children in Honduras.
Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple — the second house of the Lord in the Central American nation — on Sunday, Oct. 13.
