#131 Shanksteps (of faith)
I was in the shower when I heard someone crying. I knew that Greg was on the phone with his family so I thought that probably he was instead laughing hysterically. When got out of the shower, I realized that it was true crying; not the kind of wailing that the women do to announce to the village that someone has died, but true, honest, heart wrenching bawling. When I walked into our living room, I was met with a peculiar site. Greg was sitting on the floor with his arm around our nurse Mbaitomo. The nurse’s wife was sitting next to them. Mbaitomo was pouring out his heart to Greg. Mbai is the kind of guy that always wanted a son to carry on the family line. However hard he tried though, he ended up with 8 girls. Two days ago he found out that one of his youngest was pregnant, and took some kind of traditional concoction to abort the baby. He found out because she was bleeding all over their house. After consoling Mbai and his wife, Ruth, we told them to bring the girl in
so we could check on her. Sure enough, she was pregnant; but not just one or two months like I assumed; not even four months like she claimed; but the baby was almost 7 months along; and now dead (confirmed by ultrasound). To make matters worse, she had already ruptured her sac of amniotic fluid, and the baby was transverse (sideways). This meant that we wouldn’t be able to turn him so he could come out head-first (or even feet first). What it really meant that this baby wasn’t coming out at all except by Cesarean section. This was not what Mbai and his wife wanted for their 15 year old (unmarried) daughter.
So, Greg and I took her to surgery. She weighed about 80 pounds, with a protuberant belly. She had a fever of about 104 F. The surgery was like any other C-section (with a stillborn) except that we were now doing it on a friend. Fortunately God blessed and we were able to remove the dead fetus without too much difficulty. We finished at 2:30 am and went home to bed – very sad that her bad choices had to turn out like this. She is starting to heal but still very sick from an infected uterus. Please pray for her physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Pray that she will be able to have children in the future. Please pray also for forgiveness from her family.
In His grip, Audrey