Night Shift

Date: 10-6-07

The first patient was held by his Nangerene mother, eyes closed and head flopped to one side. I checked his conjunctiva and found it completely pale. Another Malaria patient that the parents had waited too long to bring in. After hospitalizing him, starting an IV and finally finding a blood type match for the infant we hung the blood..then the IV went bad. It was dark by this time so we took him into the nurse's station to start another IV and there in his mother's arms his little heart stopped beating. We covered his face with the cloth his little body was wrapped in. The mother dropped her head near his face but did not cry a tear or utter a sound. I put my arm around her shoulder everything inside of me wanted to wrap her in one big hug. I looked around at the faces of the other nurses with me. Completely stoic. "God, I prayed please help me never to get calloused to the death of these little ones."

I returned to the pediatric ward to check on the other babies that we had just hospitalized and had placed two to a bed because of the overwhelming amount of patients coming in. Three blood transfusion's were running, all the Quinine perfusion's were dripping slowly, everything was pretty quiet except for the raspy breathes of the baby at the end of the ward. The father was sitting on the floor looking up at the IV with his lantern, making sure that it was dripping as I approached. This one didn't look like it was gonna make it through the night. I listened to his lungs and heard the typical malaria crackles and rales. The nurse on the Med/Surg. side told me to give Dexamethasone and Ampicillin. I did this and then there was nothing else to do but wait. I returned to the back of the building where a mat had been place for me to sleep over there and laid down. But I couldn't go to sleep because all I could hear was the gasping of the infant. "God," I prayed "Is there anything else that I can do?" The moon shown in through the window above me head and filtered down through the mosquito net as I waited for a reply. "Pray with them," came the reply. I struggled with getting up out of bed since it was already 1:00 and I new because of all the blood transfusion's going and Quinine perfusions due again at 5:00 I wouldn't get much sleep but the impression wouldn't leave me. I rolled over and fought my way out of the mosquito net, fished for my flip-flops, head-lamp, and made my way to the end of the ward again. I found the father in the same position..worry written all over his face, holding the lantern and watching the drip. He jumped up as I approached. I asked him if it is would be o.k. if I prayed with him and his wife for their baby. He nodded his head immediately, there in the flickering light of his lantern I held that tiny sweaty hand and asked that God intervene, I prayed that this little girls life would be spared so that she would have the opportunity to know a relationship with God. It was all in English, but the peace of God was there.

After finishing praying I found my way over to the med/surg. side to see if everything was o.k. over there. The generator had been turned on for a C-section and as I entered the building the nurse there grabbed me by the hand and we ran toward the patient latrines. There on the ground we found a new hospitalized mom holding her new baby in her lap, the cord still pulsating with blood from the placenta. Taking the cloth from the father I wrapped the baby and beginning rubbing her to get her to cry. As a small cry came from her mouth Job clamped the cord and cut it. And then we took off running to the labor and delivery room to suction and make sure that the infant was o.k. In the light given by the generator we found a perfectly healthy newborn. I returned for the mother and found a bed for her. The baby immediately began to nurse and in no time we had the placenta out and had given some oxytocin.

So tonight is another night shift. You never know what it'll bring but God does and He can handle any situation better than I could ever have been trained to handle a situation. He is the Great Physician after all isn't He?