#109 Shanksteps of Faith
There was one nurse off, and the student nurses were off to another village for the weekend. That left two nurses to cover the 55 patients in the hospital. Audrey was caught in the ER seeing outpatients coming in who needed to be admitted. I went to make rounds on maternity/surgical ward. I had just seen 8 patients when we passed a woman on the veranda of the maternity who was in labor. She had already broken her “water” and had been in labor for about 12 hours. She went to a dispensary where
they promptly (very irregular) referred her to the hospital. I performed a vaginal exam and found the presenting part the face. She had a very small pelvis and there was meconium (a sign of fetal distress). It was decided that she should have a C-section. The husband wanted to wait for his older brother, who was “on his way”. After some discussion we were able to take her to the OR (operating room). I called Audrey to do the surgery with me. The one remaining student missionary we called in
to do anesthesia.
IV’s started, urine catheter placed, then spinal placed. We vigorously scrubbed. Opened the abdomen, and with much effort disengaged the child’s face from the pelvis of the mother. The baby was floppy and had no heart beat. After removing the child Audrey went to attend to her. CPR was performed many minutes and then finally the heartbeat came back. The child’s face was grossly edematous, purple, and disfigured after being squeezed for so long. I realized that the uterus had torn into the
vagina and bladder. I repaired both and closed up the abdomen. Audrey sat with the child in her lap bagging her for more than an hour. There were no respirations and we could not get a normal saturation during that period. So we decided to stop CPR because it appeared futile and we needed to attend to the other patients that needed our help.
I continued rounding. I saw the woman with the snakebite and a necrotic leg; another woman with a uterine mass and bleeding that needs a hysterectomy; three that had delivered in the last 24 hours; two children with malaria; the man we did a gastrojejunostomy on last night; the little girl with a tracheostomy; and the two teenage girls with breast abscesses that are slowly healing. Then on to clinic.
Clinic was filled with patients with malaria, typhoid, pneumonia, a hemorrhoid, and amoeba. I took things out of the stock to resupply the pharmacy, calculated the day’s entry from the cashier to ensure its correctness, then saw a few others in the ER on oxygen or getting transfusions. Then home to drink fresh made lemonade and eat lunch/supper.
It’s now Sabbath and I long for the rest that God has for me and the time with Him and Audrey.
In His Service, Greg
#109 Shanksteps of Faith