Friday, 23 of January 2009

Bon Jour!
I hope your week has gone well.
I hear it is very cold back in the USA, especially in Michigan and Indiana where my family is living. Can't say that I miss it much...today was "cold" since it dropped into the low 70's this morning!

Last night was interesting.
Thank you for your prayers. You have no idea how God is using them, but to give some hint...
We had a very nice meal with Huub and Margrite last evening. Unfortunately we missed Rebecca since we arrived late and she had to go to bed. Huub was helping me find IV access for a young lady who had lost a fair bit of blood from her medical condition as well as surgery earlier in the day (we cleaned out an old bone infection). The short of it is that it took "us" (me) nearly 3 hours to do what should have only taken 15 minutes if I was doing the same thing in the USA.

After dinner I arrived home and a few minutes later received a call asking if I would assist the new surgery resident on-call to do a C-section. No problem...it was only 10:30pm.
By the time we actually started and finished it was nearly 1 am.

In the process, the young mom almost died.

For no apparent reason she started breathing very irregularly, began speaking garbled speech, passed out, then quit breathing. The baby had been delivered and was doing well. As the surgeon-in-training sewed I saw the blood turning black and the uterus blue/gray. He immediately left the operation site and started working on the patient's breathing. I took over sewing the uterus to stop the bleeding.

There are no anesthesiologist here, only nurses trained to give certain drugs. If something goes wrong one of the surgeons has to take over the anesthesia. Since he spoke French I figured it was better that he work on the oxygen and breathing issues and I sew.
As I worked, prayed, and prayed as the young surgeon worked, the uterus became pink she started breathing again. Miraculously this morning you would never know that she had almost died last night. Within a few minutes she had gone from life, to giving life, to almost death, and back again. I know God has a reason, but I don't know what it was. Why she is alive is still a mystery. But thank you for praying.

As we finished up we were informed of a patient in the ER who was almost dead. So at 1 am we met a 45 y/o man who was gored by a wild "beouf" (similar to a water buffalo). He apparently startled it as he left his regular fisshing hole and it attacked him. It took them over 6 hours to get to our hospital.
The man had a "flail" chest with his right chest wall moving in and out because of all the broked ribs. His leg was ripped open along the entire right thigh and into his knee...snapping off his knee cap. The muscles and tendons were all laying exposed, except there was grass, dirt, and leaves all ground into it - so it looked like brown muscle instead of nice pink/red tissue. Both of his lung had collapsed, and there was air leaking out under his skin all over his chest.
The patient was quite polite, didn't complain much of the pain, and was quite interested in how we might help him - he was hurting and couldn't breath well at all.
We removed some of the blood from his chest, repaired the breathing problem, and washed out his leg for a looooong time. By 4 am I was home to sleep.

3 hours later I was up again and returned to the hospital to head into the day. We had a few "little" procedures today as well as clinic. Thankfully it was a "light" day and we were finished by 5pm. Had a very nice dinner with the director of Maintenance (he and his wife just arrived a month ago. It was a good way to finish off the "formal" part of the day :)

It is a good feeling tonight to know that the patients are doing better. I know it is by God's grace. I'm still amazed the man survived the wild buffalo attack. I can't imagine what it would be like to have that happen knowing the animal was trying to kill, and almost succeeded last night. Praying the patient will not succumb to infection from his injuries. Thankful that God has his life in His hands. I'm also very grateful for the work of the surgeons in training. Dr. Damle is only a first year resident, yet is quite helpful and well on his way to becoming an excellent surgeon. Glad I can be a part of their training and grateful for God's blessings.

Thank you for your prayers! It is now midnight and I'm planning to get a little more sleep.
Sorry there are no pictures in this blog. They are pretty gory, so best left to your imagination.
I am thankful we have a God who cares about the details :)
Walk with Him!!

John