So Brett has taken a month of from the hospital to finish up his language requirements for Bambara. Or at least he is supposed to be taking off the month. So far he has gone into the hospital everyday except one, which on that day he just researched things at home and consulted via the telephone. Yesterday (Saturday) he went in about 10am and came home at 9:40pm. But I guess it was a "day off" since he actually ate lunch at home which he rarely does. He went to the hospital because a few days prior a chinese lady (who is married to an Ob here in town who works for the government hospital) gave birth to triplets. One of the triplets was having a really hard time, he's actually been close to death since about 12 hrs of life because his stomach ruptured. So they decided to do surgery on this baby (yup, Brett and Dan-our Ob. Brett did anethesia and Dan operated). Well, just as Brett was about to put the breathing tube in, I called him. Some guy had come to our gate and told me that our night guard, Bocar, whom we love dearly, had been hitting something with a hammer and a piece of the hammer flew off and hit him in the abdomen. There was a lot of blood and he was in terrible pain and he needed me to take him to the hospital. So since I had called Brett, they decided to wait on the baby's surgery until I got Bocar to the hospital. I had to borrow our neighbor's car because Brett had our car at the hospital. Thankfully, our nanny was just about to leave when the guy came to our door so she was willing to stay with the boys while I dealt with Bocar. So I took the guy that had come to let me know of Bocar's troubles with me and he showed me where Bocar was. Amazingly, this is not where the accident happened, Bocar had walked from a different neighborhood to this friend's house to ask for help. By the time I got there someone had thankfully applied pressure to the wound and even had a bandage over it. But Bocar was in obvious pain. I mean, this is a man that when we had a visiting dental hygenist here who was seeing hospital employees and missionary house workers, had 5 teeth pulled at one time and still came to work the same night! He acted like it was no big deal at all! So when I saw him, I knew it was bad, but very thankful that they had at least controlled the bleeding. We drove to the hospital which was excruciating for him. Every bump - which was many- caused more and more pain. I thought he was going to go into shock in the car. But we finally made it to the hospital and Dan and Brett were able to look him over. It was actually a small wound but his stomach was really hard. Dan was concerned his stomach was full of blood. So he went immediately to surgery. And seeing that we are in Mali, I was able to watch. Never thought I'd see so much of my night guard! But soon after Dan opened him up, he quickly found a hole in his small intestine and a small piece of iron. So to make it clear, a little piece of iron from his hammer flew off, hit his abdomen with such force that it penetrated the skin, entered his abdomen and stopped as it hit his small intestine, thus leaving a hole. It really was like a gun shot wound to his abdomen.
Dan searched all over to make sure there were no other problems. Thankfully there wasn't. So it could have been much worse. We are so thankful it was quickly taken care of. It was definitely the hand of God that the surgical team was ready for him when he arrived. I mean, it was a Saturday, they don't normally have surgeries planned on the weekend. But they were there and ready. From the time I picked him up to the time he was done from surgery was only 2 hrs. And aside from a hernia repair done unsterilally that he got from the ob married to the chinese woman who had scrubbed in the case, everything went well. (As Dan turned to write up the case, this malian doc just went and made another incision in his abdomen to repair a hernia despite Dan telling him not to) Talk about things that would never happen in the states- so the dad of the baby that was to be operated on just decides he wants to scrub in on Bocar's case and help, I'm watching the case and taking pictures, I have the piece of iron from his stomach at our house (I will give it to Bocar later) and then I'm telling the whole world his story...just a bit of a HIPAA violation! :) We are so thankful for how things turned out. God is good! When Bocar's friend was telling me the details of what had taken place and that there had been a lot of blood, I was really nervous that he wouldn't make it. The thought that went through my head was "thankfully he's a christian now." We couldn't have said that a year ago. Praise the Lord that Bocar is now our brother!
But anyway, after this,, Brett still had to be there to do the anesthesia for the premie triplet. They were in surgery for hours. And then, once it was over, despite the fact that the baby had breathed on his own during the case aside from the intubation tube, once Brett removed the tube, he couldn't breathe on his own. So we were supposed to go to a birthday party last night, I thought Brett would be coming soon so I got a ride with someone else. But as the hrs passed, there was still no Brett. So finally I got someone else to take me home so I could get the boys to bed (who hadn't napped that day because of the whole Bocar incident) and at 9:40pm he finally came home.
And as I write this, Brett is at the hospital again helping with the surgery of one of the other triplets because yesterday, HIS stomach ruptured! Hopefully this family will go home with more than one baby from the three!
Oh the joys of a month OFF from the hospital!
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