Heartache again…please soothe the pain, LORD.

This is what I can focus on…praying for comfort for those who suffer.  You know, for some reason (not well understood by me), I was made as a person who feels so much, so deeply.  This personality struggles to live so close to so much suffering.  And yet, I wonder about Christ.  He submitted himself to the center of the suffering, and some Scriptures convince me that he felt the experience deeply.  Just this morning I read, “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich,” from II Corinthians.  And we know that he wept in the midst of the experience.

So, this is all leads up to a difficult case that I recently saw on Pediatrics.  I only learned some of the details later, but here it is.  This family waited 10 years to have a child.  Finally, he came; yes, it was a boy…what a precious reward according to this South Asian culture.  There is even a saying here, “If it’s late, it will be a boy,” meaning something like, “After the long wait, the reward will be great.”  So, their boy reaches 10-months of age.  He is pudgy and seemingly thriving.  But one day he gets a fever and a cough.  They wait a few days, get some medicines from the local medical hall, and wait again.  Finally, they decide that their precious son is not going to get well at home.  They find transportation to the mission hospital and arrive at our emergency room.  The child has a rapid respiratory rate, taking a breath more often than every second.  The fever is high and the lungs sound like it’s a case of pneumonia. Oxygen is given, an intravenous line is started, and antibiotics are begun.  Then the parents are told that the child will need to stay in the hospital for a little while; they can bring him to the ward.  This is where I meet the child.  But at the meeting, the child is not conscious.  Why is this child unconscious?  Nobody seems to be aware of exactly when he lost consciousness.  A quick check of oxygen level and blood sugar eliminate two possible causes.  The child’s temperature is noted to be 105 degrees.  We work at cooling this kid with medications and external cooling.  He isn’t waking, and his pupil reactions aren’t quite normal.  A head CT is not an option; that can only be found a one-hour car ride away.  We change medications, thinking that the infection may really be in the central nervous system (perhaps meningitis?).  It would be good to take some fluid from the spinal column to evaluate for this, but suddenly we notice one hand twitching…then the other…eventually all four limbs.  Now we have seizure activity, and it is not appearing to be simply related to fever.  We begin anti-seizure medications.  The response is for a brief period of time, but again the seizure activity begins.  After five doses and medication adjustments, the seizure activity is under control.  The fever subsides, the breathing gets easier (with good oxygenation), but still the child does not awaken.  Our next problem is the failure of the IV, and multiple attempts to replace it on this plump kid fail.  He needs that IV.  He has a brief awakening (I am told after I get back from a weekend away).  He is sent to the operating room where he will have a “cut-down” procedure to secure a good intravenous line.  During the preparation for the procedure, he has a respiratory-cardiac arrest.  CPR is performed.  He dies.  So many questions unanswered…was it encephalitis?  It was certainly incredible pain for the family.  And the cycle of suffering continues.  We pray for COMFORT for this family in their loss.  Oh Lord, I pray that they experienced LOVE at our hospital.

Above I mentioned the medical halls where the family got some medicine.  This is a predicament here.  Western medicine has definitely arrived.  Medicine can be found around every corner.  But training in the administration of such things is clearly lacking.  So often, patients arrive at the hospital having already tried a large variety of medicines from the medical hall, not necessarily in the proper doses and quite often mixed in combinations that are certainly ineffective, probably dangerous and occasionally downright harmful.  Dave, the anthropologist, thinks that medical halls may be replacing the witch doctors.  Their efficacy may not be much different.

Just recently, Dave reminded us all of a surgeon who worked in Tansen last year.  Just before she left she shared a story with us.  She had a young patient with cancer, and many were praying for the girl during her hospital stay.  The surgeon’s prayer had been that God would show His strength to this Hindu family through a miraculous healing.  The girl died.  The family went home.  The surgeon felt sadness.  Then just before her departure, she discovered that the family had turned to the God who is LOVE.  She was shocked.  Their response was that the LOVE they experienced at the hospital was something entirely different than anything they had experienced before.  It was their pathway to God.  PRAISE HIM…He always knows what He is doing.

Trust Him, Kimberly, trust Him…even in the pain.

Thanks for listening.