morning. Immediately after church, someone came to and said that a
couple had been fighting and had seriously injured each other. They
had brought them as far as the church on "stretchers" (basically a
frame made from tree limbs with fabric for the person to lay on). I
assessed them and really didn't think that either was all that
seriously injured, but told them to take them on up to the clinic and
I'd have a look. The wife had a probably broken collar bone and a cut
lip, neither of which I could do much for other than some pain
medicine and a splint.
But the husband was a different story. When I started checking him
over, they told me that he had been hit in the left side with a large
stone and also cut on his head with a stick. He apparently had been
fine for a couple hours after, then started passing out and throwing
up. I first thought that he might have a concussion from the knock on
his head, but his pupils looked fine and most of the time he seemed
with it. Also the cut was pretty minor. I sewed up the cut on his
head, but still wasn't sure what else was going on. Then he threw up
and passed out there in the clinic. Of course, the 50+ people
assembled went nuts, but he did come back around eventually. I checked
a blood pressure and it was rather low. Then I noticed that he was
tender throughout his abdomen, even though he had only been struck on
the left side. He was also cold and clammy as if he might be going
into shock. I then started worrying about a possible internal injury
and bleeding. I started an IV (by the grace of God, since I hadn't
done that for several years) and started replacing the likely blood
loss. That brought his blood pressure back up to an acceptable level.
The next decision was what to do with him. Obviously, he needed to be
assessed at a facility with much better capabilities than my little
clinic. But how to get him there was the issue. It was nearly dark and
it wouldn't be possible to fly him out of anywhere until morning. So,
the family decided to keep him at the clinic (actually in my waiting
house where they could build a fire and stay with him) so that I could
monitor him throughout the night and keep IV fluids going. Then in the
morning, Brother Randy would drive him to the 2.5 hours to Nomane
where he could get a plane flight to Goroka where there is at least a
halfway decent government hospital. Thankfully, he did well throughout
the night and made the trip safely.
This man is from the Kensa line, which as you may remember from
earlier posts, has been traditionally quite resistant to the gospel,
the missionaries, and our church. This is the third medivac from their
neighborhood within the past year. We believe that the Lord is trying
to get their attention. Please join with us in praying for a
breakthrough in this community.
No comments:
Post a Comment