Death- Circles of 3

They say people die in threes.... it always seems to be true. We had a special guest come onboard a couple of weeks ago to vist. She was a returning patient, one of the first cleft lip/palate babies Mercy Ships ever did surgery on. The founder of Mercy Ships had kept up with her year and year and invited her back to say hello from a nearby West African country and to look into getting her to Europe for a future heart/lung transplant she desperatly needed as she was becoming weaker and weaker from these underlying medical conditions.

A few days after being here, she collapsed in the town outside the port and was emergently admitted into our ICU downstairs. She became weaker and weaker until her heart finally gave out on her. The crew that knew her was deeply saddened by her death but grateful she was among good friends, family and medical care during her last few days on earth.

The second death was a little baby with his mother in the back part of our ship, waiting to be seen for the first time by our physician. Unfortunatly by the time she came it was a little too late, and as some our staff passed by and looked at the crowd waiting to be seen, noticed the babies poor color. By the time the physician got there, the baby was already gone and pronounced dead. The mother wailed on her knees in the middle our cargo hold. A scene no one ever forgets. Another vivid wake up call to us here, of the misfortunate health care system in a third world nation.

The third happened last week on our ward. My roommate had just recieved her thyroidectomy patient back from having her huge goiter removed. The women asked to go to the bathroom shortly after settling into bed and by the time she got back to bed she was becoming short of breath. A rare, but extremely dangerous post-op complication was unfolding before my roommates eyes...the patient was bleeding internally in her airway and it was rapidly closing around her trachea. Just as was taught in our in-service the other week by the surgeon, the staff began ripping open the incision to release the bloodclot that was tightening her airway. The Code team arrived fast and took her back to the OR. She survived a second surgeryto repair the artery but was still in critical condition and needed to be ventilated with a trach in the ICU. She lived several more days but after a CT scan we saw that she had massive swelling in her brain and even if she DID wake up, she went to long without recieving oxygen to the brain and would have permanent damage. She had a wonderful, supportive christian family that came to see her daily. She passed one morning a few days after and went on to a much better place.

Starting the outreach off like this is never what one hopes for, but for them we know now they are in God's hands and experiencing a much better life than could be offered down here.
The rest of the ward is flourishing, with mininal infection rates and post-op complications. Please continue to keep them all in your prayers. Thank you.