Stan, are you okay??

Date: 3-12-08

Let me bring you up to date. On the 23rd of February I ran across a dusty field with tears in my eyes and met Stan Wheeler outside of the church here in Béré. It was like having part of my family here. Stan is here fixing everything planes, generators, screens, hospital beds, gate locks, etc. You name he can fix it! In between the fix it job's he's visited my hut and had some boulle and spit sauce, Mmmm ;)

Today the 12th of March the 4 of us SM's, Stan, and Andre (the hospital administrator) took off on an exploration of Africa. All of us Nasarah's (Nangere' for white person) climbed in the back of the truck to get the most of the trip. We were going to Andre's village 200 km away, Lere'. Supposedly we we're going to see elephant's, waterfalls, and live with his family for the weekend. We bounced along, wind blowing our hair every which way, and praying that the driver would get us to Lere' in one piece ;) Finally we stopped to have the oil-filter changed. Stan climbed out of the back of the truck and found a place to sit down leaning his head back up against the wall of a tailor's shop. School had just let out and droves of children flocked to the shops to stand and stare. Stan finally looked at me and said, "Maybe I should start that Cipro. My throat is just getting worse." He'd had a sore throat for the last 3 days but just thought it was all the dust and smoke.

We moved things around and he climbed inside to try and get some rest. We climbed in the back and we're off again. He appeared immediately to have fallen asleep. About ½ hour later the truck slowed to a stop and I saw Noelle the pastor sitting next to Stan making some motions. Esther and I climbed out and got in next to Stan, he couldn't move his hands, legs, or head. The first thing I thought was Heat Stroke. We starting pouring water into his mouth, soaking his shirt, head and fanning him. Finally he started to come to a bit, enough to start eating something. Maybe his blood sugar was low. We tried giving him some fruit leather but he couldn't chew it. Thankfully Wendy had sent some Pumpkin Bread along that he was able to get down. The truck was beginning to overheat so we had to keep going. I climbed inside with Stan continuing to feed him, fan him, and keep the water going down. We arrived in Lere' about 45 minute's later stopping at the pastor's house there. We moved Stan to a carpet in their courtyard where he started to feel worse even with all the food and water we'd got down him. Yep, it was time to call Gary.

About 30 minutes later we were back in the truck on the way to the local hospital to get some Serum Glucose, Ringer's and an IV Catheter before meeting Gary at the airstrip that was only 7km away. We spread a mat out next to the airstrip and there with Hans squeezing Stan's arm and using the alcohol wipes from his first Aid Kit I started an IV and a Serum Glucose perfusion. Natives began to accumulate in a large group around us and heads tipped upward as the airplane emerged through the dusty clouds above us.

Holding Stan's perfusion in one hand and my backpack in the other we climbed into the back of the plane and took off without barely a chance to wave goodbye. We had 45 minutes till sundown and we were pushing it to be able to land back in Béré before sundown. Stan collapsed inside the plane head against the window, arms flopped to the side. I hung his perfusion from the seat belt holder near the roof and doused him again with water. My stomach was a little tipsy but I'd never thrown up in a plane before. But about 10 minutes from landing everything that had gone down that day came right back up.

Wendy met us at the airstrip, on the four-wheeler, shining light's so that Gary would know where to land. Gary went and got a truck from Anne and Rich's and soon we were on our way to the hospital.

We helped Stan into the ER room and immediately did a Glycemia test which was 116 and took his Blood Pressure, everything was normal. Gary suggested doing a sputum test. The hospital was abuzz since Dr. Bond was finishing off his 5th surgery for the day so we helped Stan over to the hospital house and to the shower where he could get cleaned up and cooled off. Finally we had him in bed where he fell exhausted. I put up his mosquito net for him and then went back over to check on his test. It was positive for Strep. The Cipro he'd starting taking that morning should take care of that. After talking with Gary we decided that he'd probably experienced Heat Stroke, and the Step had just hit hard core. The next morning he looked much better, and is now up getting around and eating good. Still it was quite a scare and we're thankful that he's healthy again.