Skip to main content

A Shadow of the Future


 So this is gonna be a heavy one...

Today Matt, Anna, Nicole and I got to step into the world of neurosurgery at Kijabe Hospital as we shadowed Dr. Leland Albright and team on their morning rounds and then observed surgery on a 2-week-old Spina Bifida baby. I cannot even begin to describe what an amazing opportunity this was. One I was glad to wake up at 5:30am for.

Rounds at the pediatric neurology ward of the hospital really opened my eyes to the unique aspects of practicing medicine in other countries, especially ones where quality medical care/resources can be scarce. Each bed that we visited introduced something new:
  • The Spina Bifida infant who is potentially stuck on oxygen for life due to a shrunken lung taught me that cases are often much more complicated than in the United States. Spina Bifida is rarely just Spina Bifida and is accompanied by a range of issues from head swelling (hydrocephalus) to missing kidneys.
  • An infant and mother longing for home but requiring antibiotics taught me that hospitals often have fair stocks of antibiotics that can be given by I.V. but lack oral supplies that could allow patients to go home sooner.
  • A post-op Spina Bifida baby and mother from far north Kenya in Kijabe because they do not live near a single hospital or clinic taught me that we are blessed to have medical care practically around every corner in the States.
  • A Masi-tribe mother that doesn't speak a word of English or Swahili with a Spina Bifida infant whose head is rapidly swelling and in need of surgery showed me the challenges of rural cross-cultural areas. Dr. Albright, when asked how they would translate, responded that they are forced to hope that there might be someone else among the hospital patients that knows the Masi language.
  • Children born in Kenya with a Spina Bifida spinal chord gap that is "open" are rarely operated on and have little options but a slow death. This idea really hit home when we realized that the 11-year-old boy traveling with us from Longview, Connor, was born with one such "open" diagnosis.
Today I caught a glimpse of my future. Dr. Albright is a world-renowned neurosurgeon but has chosen to come to a place where here is largely unknown, where he can use his valuable skills and passion to change one life at a time. That's what I want.

About halfway through the two-plus-hour Spina Bifida surgery, as I sat outside the operating room (OR) to catch my breath and my stomach, I began to fight off panic. "This isn’t supposed to happen... I'm supposed to be strong, I'm supposed to be a doctor…" I panicked as I imagined my grasp on my ever-sure future slipping away. I lifted my gaze to find a mural across from my seat, a painting of Peter clutching Jesus as he sinks among the waves that he so boldly stepped upon moments before. I took a deep breath to calm my thoughts and smiled. Whatever God wants me to do in life, he'll get me there. My job is to believe. With my new-found peace, I walked confidently back into the OR theatre to watch one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

Observing this pediatric ward was especially valuable because our entire purpose in Kenya is working with kids that have the very conditions we were seeing at Kijabe Hospital (Spina Bifida, cranial TB, ect…). I realize how even more special spending time with these kids is. The testimony of the Joytown chaplain Francesca taught me the startling fact that often times in smaller rural communities, children born with any kind of disability are outright poisoned to be removed as a "burden" from the family. I would encourage you to listen to Francesca's story here. It may be hard to hear but it's life here in Kenya and many other places.

Life that needs to be known and prayed over.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And Now Presenting… - Joytown Day 13

Our whirlwind day of presentation (no wheelchair pun intended) began with a formal presentation to the Joytown secondary school (high school) and ended with a true Kenyan-style impromptu pres to the primary students and teachers. We carefully planned a presentation to the high school students, even creating a powerpoint to share with them containing graphs of the finalized data and pictures from the study. We miraculously packed 20+ people and wheelchairs into a computer room of the school library that was really only designed for 10 or so comfortably. We shared our data results and the Tinsley family shared some really encouraging words to the teens/young adults, urging them to realize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by God for great purposes in this world. After exchanging contact information with one of the head-teachers who organized the high school participation in our study, (once she had told us about three different ways about the high school exchange progra...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clinic and Karibu - Joytown Day 8

  Karibu! No not the animal, the Swahili word meaning 'welcome'. Today was significant in that I finally felt welcome as part of the community at joytown and no longer a visitor. I've built relationships with the BethanyKids therapists and am able to recognize/name a large portion of the kids. At the end of the school day around 3:30, we have an ever growing number of kids inching into our work building and crowding around our stations, usually centered around a computer. I guess I never really expected to build friendships with therapists at Joytown, my perception of it was always centered around the research and the children. However, I am so glad for our relationships so far! Today we continued with data collection but with the interesting component of the mobile clinic visiting day. Surprisingly, besides moving the location of our 10:30 tea and 1:00 lunch, the clinic did not interfere one bit. On the contrary, it provided some awesome opportunity for conversation ...
Post a Comment
Read more

This is Africa

I'M IN AFRICA! Now I've had limited sleep in the past 48 hours (I wont mention an exact number for my mother's sake...) and am pretty dead tired so I really will keep this post short. Highlights from the first two days in Africa: Sleeping for 4 solid hours on our 8 hour flight from London to Nairobi and waking up to a hot tray of four-cheese tortellini airline pasta. Arriving in Kenya and getting my first travel visa! (A.k.a. a nice sticker in my passport) Meeting our drivers Joseph and Peter at the airport and figting the urge to respond to everything in Spanish... my brain was still stuck in the last time I was in a foreign country (Mexico). Getting a flat tire on the way from the airport to our "home base" in Thika and learning the true meaning of the phrase "T.I.A." or "This is Africa". Spending 4 hours in church (In two different services and one Sunday school class). Eating Ethiopian food for the first time. The moment I reali...
Post a Comment
Read more