Prayer As Witness

There was a time during the care of my four-year old patient that all I could do for him was to pray.   He was in very critical condition and no medicine could help.  So after taking his vital signs and making him comfortable, I prayed at his bedside, the rosary and divine mercy chaplet .

One time I got near to his head and whispered in his ear, “Wilson, you are an angel and have suffered so much already.  You are too young to experience this discomfort. If our Lord is calling you, just go with Him.  You deserve peace of mind ,body and soul. I like taking care of you, but I can see you are suffering and so does your mom. If the Angels want to take you, just go with them.”

Little did I know that my two female co-workers heard me.  I just found out about this when I was given a day off for a Lenten pilgrimage day.  One of them was talking about what I had whispered to Wilson - the prayer I said to him.  Then each of them called me in a corner and requested me to pray for them on my pilgrimage,  They enumerated their petitions and prayer, a few were even very personal.

They were serious in talking with me. So I made them aware that I will make their prayers known to God. After this incident we seemed to bond even more. This is what I call an intangible gift from God that I have received in this mission.

Cardiac Conference

St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital, Shisong celebrated its first cardiac conference at the Hilton Hotel in Yaounde with the theme: Cardiac and Vascular Events. It was on March 16^th for  the cardiac center open door day.

I had the opportunity to witness the presentation of the seven-years experience of Shisong cardiac center. The panelist were cardio-vascular doctors from Italy, USA  and Cameroon. The main guest speaker was the Minister of Public Health of Cameroon. There were some former patients who came also per invitation. The whole event was amazing.

My trip to Yaounde was overnight by bus with other staff. Then our cardiac center manager had me stay at a nice hotel which I am grateful to God and the Tertiary Sisters of St Francis. I felt so special on how they took care of me.

Too Young For This Cross

I had a four year old male patient named Wilson who had open heart surgery on January 20th for correction of Tetralogy of Fallot.  He  was unstable since his transfer from the theatre/operating room to ICU due to hypotension.

His condition kept turning for the worst. The main clinical  sign is necrosis of his fingers and toes that extended to hands and feet with blisters. In addition his abdomen got distended day after day. He was with endotracheal tube connected to a ventilator.

The sad part is seeing his mother and other female relatives staring at Wilson's fingers and asking questions about his prognosis, if the fingers will be normal again. They had been told by the doctor but they seemed to seek more information from us (nurses).

I asked myself, “Does God want to have many people to see this child's condition?” The administrative staff came to visit Wilson mainly because they had learned that his condition is bad but he continually gets medications to keep him alive though unconscious. I asked my other co-nurseš if we can have a priest called for his last rites, but no one was sure of his religion. This seemed unusual to me. Anyway, we have been praying at his bedside. We talk with him as we take care of him and we had the mother sit at his bedside and she talked with him too.

I had the willingness to take care of him in spite of the suffering this child is undergoing. He is too young to carry his cross and it hurts to witness it. His father did not visit which meant no support for the mother except for other women in the family.

There were days when I could not pray anymore at the bedside because I became tearful.  This is the only patient I was affected so emotionally here at St Elizabeth Hospital because of the suffering I had seen and that all I can do is to make him as comfortable as possible and pray. I could not talk to the doctor about how long he will keep Wilson on the ventilator with his worsening condition, etc.

There was a time when the doctor suggested to have a transistor radio next to Wilson to stimulate his brain with a musical sound. I followed this in spite of his deteriorating condition. I used my iPad with music and placed it next to Wilson's head. I know what you may be thinking at this point but I just like to do what I can to help him in case it will do some good.

Eventually Wilson was allowed to go by disconnecting him from the ventilator etc. May he rest in peace.