Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A late night walk.

Enjoyed a lovely visit from our friends this weekend. You can read about the visit from their perspective here visit.
Sapote tree with new leaves.

Cory took apart the modem, looked at it, put it back together, and praise the Lord its working again!
Still will get a second back up soon.

Yesterday Cory and I worked on paperwork while Eli and Anna worked on school work.

Getting dry here and the grass crunches a bit when you walk on it but we are thankful for enough water to irrigate the potted trees and plants.

Being tired last night we joined for family prayers early so I could go to bed. Eli and Anna read a bit longer but the 'old folks' went to bed at 8:30 p.m.

Can always get up early if rested and enjoy some time on the computer during unlimited bandwidth time.

Well shortly after 1 a.m. I found myself on an unexpected walk. The grass wet, not sure if we had a light rain that I slept though or just heavy dew and a bright 1/2 moon in the sky.

Genner who works as the clinic's night watchmen came up to get me. Do not remember a watchman every coming for me armed with a machete before.

The night was quiet with only a few distant dogs barking. Peaceful.

I found a small group of people who had brought in an unconscious older man. Not much known of his medical history by the people there. On exam his nonreactive pupils were uneven, one blown and one pinpoint. Non-responsive to voice or pain.

His breathing pattern alternated from deep, rapid breaths for about 40 seconds to no breathing at all for about 15. [Cheyne-Stokes for the medical folks] Occasionally his muscles would all stiffen and his teeth made a grinding sound.

I let the group know that in my opinion he'd likely suffered a massive stroke or the rupture of a brain aneurysm. Unfortunately our small clinic could not do anything other than pray.With permission from the on lookers I prayed out loud for the man and the family.

I wrote a note on the chart.  I went over what I thought again with the folks this time asking if they had any questions. I let them know they could stay at the clinic with the gentleman or take him home. The Lord can work miracles anywhere so if it was better for them to return to the house that was fine.

I walked back up to the house with Genner.

Prayers: a last resort? While it may sound like it in this case, not really.

 Did we really 'treat' this medical case? We did the only thing we could. Would it be effective? That depends on the Lord as does all medical treatments.

The Lord created us and the world. No doubt that He could heal the man. Just trusting that the Lord knows what is best and does it even when we do not understand.

Walked back up the hill in the beautiful moonlight. Peaceful.



1 comment:

Peter Olson said...

The life of every patient,

even with the most highly trained, highly skilled, nurses, doctors, surgeons,

with the best medical equipment, state-of-the-art facilities, and support staff ….

is still entirely in the hands of God.

Prayer should always be part of healthcare. :-)

Keep up the great work, twenty-four / seven