Ok. So sincere apology here. I started this blog thinking that I would use it, but it turned out to be a better idea to e-mail updates out. I tried to get a good comprehensive list of people who would like to receive the update... and I definitely left some people out and got some e-mail addresses wrong. One reason for posting e-mails instead of blogposts is because it kept the information at least a little more secure. Anyways, here's my latest e-mail update.
Friends!
Currently I'm about a week out from making a long trip home. It is hard for me to believe that this is the case, but I'm trying to make the most of my last moments here.
Like always, prayer requests are at the bottom and in bold, followed up with a good dose of "Storytime with Roberdeau."
Congrats Ro and Anna for your wedding day! I sure wish I could be there.
This past week has been fairly "normal" if that means anything at all. I've been at the hospital working in the theatre - sometimes scrubbing in, while at other times observing. Usually my role depends on the types and number of staff present on a particular day.
Recently, there have been some students at MUST (the hospital I'm at) from Harvard who are doing some kind of research and rotations. I think they all are doing something different while there, but I've had the chance to interact with some of them over the past few days. I was able to talk with them about some of the insights I've gained over the past couple of months. One of them didn't listen much, but the other took to what I was trying to explain. I explained some of the concepts I've learned from the book "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Bryan Fikkert from Covenant College. This book has some fascinating insights on poverty alleviation and some of the reasons that billions of dollars have been poured into African nations without much progress. It says that poverty exists because of broken relationships (with each other, with themselves, with God, and with the world itself). Poverty is not just a lack of material resources, but it can also be a poverty of their dignity. This is one reason that giving handouts can do more harm than good in many cases. (There is a place for handouts - like during disaster relief efforts).... I could go on and on - but instead I'll just tell you to read the book!
So I explained that some of the problems here are due to people's lack of dignity and self-worth. Here's a recent example: We're in surgery and working on a patient. I'm not sure if the patient could speak english (many can speak at least a little bit) but the doctor was just talking casually during the operation about how even if this patient gets through the surgery, he wouldn't be surprised if they were to die of septicemia (sepsis - a blood infection). This was followed by a half-laugh and the conversation headed somewhere else after the comment. I was floored.
People have value - not because we say they do, but because they are in the image of God. Without that fact, people are just bodies and we are just machines that do work and are only worth what we accomplish in this world. But this is not the case - we are image-bearers and we need to treat people (at least, we as believers) with that in mind.
Anyways, I'm not exactly sure what I wanted to accomplish with this update, but I did want to share some of the things I've been observing. Examples of the fallenness of this world are all around us, but that also means that opportunities for reconciliation are all around us. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 that
"18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
On another note, the Boyett's and all the short-termers (me included...) are going to Queen Elizabeth National Park tomorrow. We'll be there for one night. It should be a lot of fun and I hope to get some good pictures.
Prayer requests:
1. Safety in traveling to Queen Elizabeth
2. The Farming God's Way program had its first sessions this week - I heard that the participants were very interested and were very curious. Praise the Lord for success thusfar and pray for continued success.
3. Pray for me to be a good steward of this last week. Some good relationships have been fostered and I'd like to continue to grow these even with time here drawing to a close.
And finally... Storytime with Roberdeau
So... just after sending last week's update, an amazing course of events came to pass. I'd like to share with you this story. It seemed just like a normal Friday in the operating theatre (that's what they call them here...). I almost left for lunch, but decided to stay on for the last case. Another abscess that needed to be drained... yippee... (only a bit of sarcasm here...). The man we were going to be working on had been standing in the door of a bus when he was thrown from the open door and fell out onto the ground. He'd developed a lot of sores from this injury (mostly due to the way he had been managing his wounds.. but that's another story). The doctors were suspicious that this man had sepsis, a condition that he has an infection not just in his leg, but also in his bloodstream. These patients for some reason or another ( I don't know why yet...) are harder to control when under anesthesia.
So, we gave him spinal anesthesia and laid him back. I was watching his face when I noticed... he looks like he passed out. So I nudged the anesthesiologist and she started taking steps to get his attention. He was out cold. This is not good. Spinal anesthesia is only supposed to knock out feeling from the waist down, not make you go unconscious. His breathing became unstable, his pulse dropped, and all of a sudden the anesthesiologist is giving motions to give chest compressions because of low heart output. She was trying to breath for him with a bag and to intubate him. I began compressions. - Now I'm glad I have CPR training. :)
It's pretty scary when everyone in the room is running around and you're giving chest compressions. You're thinking - " I hope these are hard enough, What if I have to stop, What if someone can't replace me when I'm getting tired, and Is this guy going to live?" She gave him a drug that raised his heart rate back to normal range and things seemed to get better.
Unfortunately, things didn't stay that way. For the next hour or so we had to wrestle with him physically to hold him down as he showed signs of not getting enough oxygen to his brain. I could hardly hold down his right side as people on the left were also struggling with him. I periodically found myself praying for him as I felt like there was nothing I could do as I watched this man decline. For you medical people, he started to show signs of decorticate posturing which meant he could have some significant brain damage. All these things I had studied started to unfold right before my eyes.
After some muscle relaxer, he calmed down and he started to stabilize over time. We wheeled him to the ICU which was a long journey that consisted of rolling this bed through doors only inches wider than the bed, around corners, outside and down a ramp (not allowing the bed to get away from us...) and finally to the ICU - all without Oxygen. I was scared for this man.
We got him stabilized in the ICU and left. I promised myself that I would visit him on the following monday when I returned to the hospital.
So, when I arrive at the hospital I was going to do rounds with the doctor on duty and then go to the ICU. We're seeing a patient and then I realize that the next patient in sequence is you guessed it!... our friend from the last friday! He's not in the ICU anymore, but is actually sitting up and talking normally - complaining about his leg hurting, haha. Praise the Lord - that's really all I can say. I'm glad not everything goes as the textbook says it should go.
Have a good week!
