Rafael Lima needs urgent knee surgery

Please consider donating to help cover expenses for urgent knee surgery for my brother-in-law, Rafael, a missionary teacher in the Amazon. He needs surgery to insert 2-3 pins in his patella to stabilize his knee-cap and keep it from further injury.

This surgery is out-of-pocket and will cost roughly US $5,000, including transportation and some physical therapy. Some gifts towards this surgery are being given off of the GoFundMe platform. We are subtracting those gifts from the total. [Please note--this amount was updated from the original higher amount as the current exchange rate was figured into the price.] If Rafael were to wait to have his surgery when the public hospital can schedule it, it could take anywhere from 3-5 years to get his turn. Ideally, the surgery should happen by tomorrow, three weeks from the injury. It took two and a half weeks to do enough testing to determine that Rafa needed the surgery. His surgeon recommends that it be done next week, by August 20.

Please pray that God will supply the funds needed for this surgery, and please consider giving towards his surgery.

My sister Elice and her husband Rafael teach at a school in the Amazon for children of missionaries. Rafael Lima de Oliveira is a STEM teacher at the International School of Puraquequara–on the Amazon River. During the June/July school break, he participated in several projects, including helping a fellow teacher with her home renovation. Rafa has been involved with the remodeling work, including new roofing. The week he was hurt, they worked on wiring to prepare the house for solar power, so it doesn’t need to run on a generator.

Here are two videos–one is about PQQ, the school. You can see Rafa in a couple of spots in the video, including teaching math at the board and playing basketball with his students: https://youtu.be/o3riuF9pgis

Here is a second video detailing the teamwork involved in maintaining buildings in a remote rainforest: https://youtu.be/3j18SDVPu8A

On Saturday, July 23, Rafa fell onto a tiled floor on his ladder, on his knees. His right knee hit the floor first and took the brunt of the impact. Two nurses work at the school. They helped him immobilize his knee, and friends helped him take a speedboat to Manaus and get to an emergency room.

His initial x-ray was not conclusive about whether his kneecap (patella) had been fractured. However, he needed to have fluid drained as he had a large hematoma.

Over the next two weeks, God has provided funds and transportation through friends for follow-up scans, another x-ray, and consultations with an orthopedic doctor and a specialist.

Rafael has access to the public medical system in Brazil. This system, unfortunately, has a waiting period of up to three or four years for orthopedic surgeries. Rafa can’t wait three or four years. His fractured knee will begin calcifying–producing new bone–to fill in the damaged areas within a few weeks of the injury.

Yesterday the private practice surgeon contacted Rafa and told him that the specialist said he needs to have the surgery to insert 2-3 screws by next week. If he does not have this surgery, his knee will wear out sooner, and he will need a knee replacement sooner rather than later. Rafa is only 31. We would like him to have the mobility he needs as a young man, a young father, an active coach and teacher, and a hard worker.

The surgeon working with him quoted the necessary supplies and medical staff (including two surgeons and the anesthetist) and stand-alone surgical center as being near US$5,500. (The amount in US dollars is not exact because of the daily exchange rate.) This amount is not a co-pay but the full surgery cost. Rafael is also doing physical therapy.

Rafael and Elice are currently applying for permission for Rafa, a Brazilian, to come to the US for further training and raise full-time missionary support. They began the application process in 2019. Unfortunately, the USCIS paused during the worst of the Covid-19 epidemic. While the process was on hold, Elice and Rafa went ahead and moved to PQQ in January of 2021 and began teaching on a short-term basis because there was such an urgent need for teachers who could teach in both English and in Portuguese.

Because they are under-supported, they cannot afford private health insurance, and have had to pay out-of-pocket for all of these medical expenses. Rafael began teaching classes for this school year on Wednesday, August 3. This past Friday, July 5, Rafa received news that his Green card application had moved to the next step. He is waiting for the US consulate in Rio de Janeiro to schedule an in-person interview.

We look forward to seeing them take their next steps, training in the US.

Please pray with us that God will supply the financial needs for Rafael’s surgery and that his knee will heal well.