"Hallas Fame, Hallas"

Date: 4-1-08

She lay as stiff as a board, toes pointed straight, jaw locked, and stomach muscles tightened. Her eyes blinked with fear as Tetanus took over her little 4 year old body. Her Arab father lifted her from their mat outside and carried her into the pediatric ward where I could start her IV perfusion. As he picked her up not a single limb moved on her body, he could've held her only at her stomach and she would have stayed completely stiff.

Esther and I were giving round the clock medication to her because Dr. Bond didn't trust the nurses to give the correct dosages of the medication he was prescribing. Tonight was my shift on the midnight dose. I pushed the diazepam, Peni. G and gave her an IM injection. "Hallas, Fame, Hallas". I whispered in the darkness of the ward "It's finished, Fame, it's finished". Her whimpers quieted and I patted her rock hard stomach and smoothed her little Arab dress. After 5 days of treatment her feet had started to relax a little bit and this evening her mother had stuck a little pair of Arab shoes on her feet.

The next morning at 6 O'clock I arrived for the next dose but this time armed with just more than medication. Her little brother stood by her bed and a smile broke across his face as I pulled out two balloon's one for him and one for his sister. Soon shouts of gleeful laughter echoed through the ward as he chased the bouncing balloon. Fame held onto her balloon with a little fist that had finally loosened up and looked up at me with wide eyes. Would she ever be able to walk again? Would she ever live a normal life? I suppose that's why I yearn for God to come more than I ever have before.