Shanksteps
Marie, age 14, was in a coma when her parents brought
her into the Koza ER. They said that she had only
been sick for 2 days. She had complained of headache
and nausea and they had given her some type of
traditional medicine. By the time she arrived at the
ER she had already had 4 or 5 seizures. As this is
the season for meningitis, a spinal tap was done,
which revealed pus in the spinal fluid. She was
started on high dose antibiotics. I saw her the
following morning, still in a coma. She had been
convulsing on and off all night, but the nurse hadn’t
called any of the doctor’s to see her. Her father had
smeared some type of traditional anti-seizure root all
over her face, lips, eyes, ears and who knows where
else. I gave her a full exam and was very troubled to
find that the pupil in her right eye had no response
to light, and that her right eye didn’t seem to move
at all. The pupil in her left eye was sluggish. I
was very worried that at best she would lose sight in
the right eye; at worst she would die or be severely
brain damaged. When I looked at her parents my heart
sank. They had just lost a child last month at the
hospital after a long hospital stay. They had no more
money and were very discouraged. When faced with the
possibility of a large hospital bill again, the father
decided to take her home to die. I was very upset, as
this family had done everything possible for their
little son in December, and I could feel their
anguish. I immediately got on my knees with the nurse
next to me and prayed for this family; for the child;
for healing; for miracles; for understanding and
wisdom; for patience. The family decided to let her
stay one more day.
The next morning before rounds, my nurse and I prayed
for all of the patients, and especially for the
families to understand what we are trying to do, and
that they would all see the love of Christ in us.
When we got to Marie, her father didn’t even argue
about continuing medications or staying in the
hospital. He was obviously discouraged, but willing
to continue care and prayer. Again I prayed for
miraculous healing. The following day (after first
praying with my nurse – we have decided that it is
crucial before starting rounds) when we got to Marie,
she had started moving her arms and legs, but had not
yet woken up. On day 4 she was awake, but immediately
I realized that she had serious problems with her
right eye (by now she had some reaction of the pupil,
but very irregular). She would look around but her
right eye would not move at all. I did a fundoscopic
exam (to look at the retina) and saw that 2 of her 4
arteries had no blood in them, and a 3rd had very
little. I was sure that she had lost sight in this
eye. In addition, she still had no movement of her
right eye. She also had not yet started talking.
During the next several days the nurse and I prayed
with her every morning for a miraculous healing.
After one week in the hospital, she was finally
responding to people around her. I checked her vision
and she was completely blind in the right eye. Every
day I checked her vision and did a neurologic exam.
Several days later I noticed that her eye had started
to move. She was able to see shadows and grab at very
large objects. After two weeks in the hospital she
was off IV antibiotics and outside walking around,
although with limited vision in her right eye. Her
parents realized that a miracle had taken place in
their daughter, not only for her life, but also in her
vision. By discharge she was able to grab items the
size of a flashlight (only using her right eye). When
I looked at her retina, I was able to see all four
retinal arteries and veins – and they all looked
normal!
That is not the end of the miracle though. Unlike
other “bush†hospitals, we will admit patients without
prepaying their bill, but we do require them to remain
with us until their bill is paid. I spoke with our
chaplain about the difficulty this family was facing
after the last hospital bill and a fund was set up
with the hospital employees to financially help this
family. They were able to leave the hospital debt
free after we set up this fund. We are hoping that
once the hospital is running well that we can start a
real fund for patients with great financial need. (We
would gladly accept donations for this fund as well…)
But the story doesn’t end there. Several weeks ago I
saw Marie on a follow-up visit. She is back in
school, not having any learning difficulty. I did a
full neurologic exam on her and she has NO deficits.
Her eyesight is 20/20 in both eyes and her retinal
exam is completely normal!!! The ONLY way I can
explain what I have seen is by God’s miraculous
healing. Fortunately the family also agrees with this
conclusion.
Since the time that this took place we have
experienced a meningitis epidemic. The nurses here
say that they haven’t seen anything like this for 20
years or more. We have had 15 admissions of children
with meningococcal meningitis over the past 2 weeks.
They are all from the same village and same school.
Unfortunately for every child that is brought into the
hospital, I am sure there are several others that die
at home. We have had 2 deaths from meningitis
(unfortunately from the same family) but I believe now
after having all the information that the deaths were
probably caused more by the abundance of traditional
medications given to the children before bringing them
into the hospital. Both were already in a coma by the
time they reached us.
Another hazard has also been brought to my attention
recently. A 7-year-old girl was brought in with
meningitis last week with extreme irritability. She
(like Marie) had no response in one pupil and no
movement of the eye. I discovered from her family
that when she first complained of a headache that they
went to the local market (the guy on the bike) to
purchase something for headache. There is now in our
market a pill made in Nigeria that is sold for
“extreme headacheâ€. This pill consists of Tylenol
500mg (adult dose) and cocaine (unknown amount). She
was given several “doses†of this in addition to
regular adult strength Tylenol prior to admission. To
make matters worse, she drinks wine on a daily basis.
I was very, very worried about here. I left her
bedside at 3am and when I got home I realized that I
had forgotten to pray with her. So, I prayed all
night for her. I woke up every 30 minutes or so and
prayed and prayed. When I came in the next morning
and looked in the emergency room where I had left her,
the bed was empty. My heart sank. I asked the nurse
who had been on what happened, obviously thinking the
worst. He explained that early in the morning she sat
up, started talking and asking for food. She had
already eaten breakfast and been moved to the
pediatric ward. She too has full vision!!! God is in
the miracle business here. Please pray for miracles-
healing both physical and spiritual. Pray that this
epidemic will stop without more loss of life. Please
pray for the health of our nurses and ourselves as we
are in contact with many very sick people. Prayer is
an incredible privilege that God has given us to talk
to Him directly.
In His Incredible Service,
Aud, Greg, and Sarah