As I am talking and evaluating one pt in the ER, I notice a man walking
into the ER with his teenage daughter 4 steps behind him. The man easily walks in, but the
daughter is struggling, stumbling, using every ounce of strength she has to make her way into the
ER. As I look at them, I notice
how pale her face, her hands and her feet are. I quickly signal to dad to have her lie on the closest bed, and she struggles to make it there. Although I don't know why, I know she is anemic, very short of
blood, and that she needs it soon. She sure didn't come too soon, but I wonder if she came too late.
As I am finishing up with my first patient, I am asking the nurses to
quickly help this girl. Please start an IV, draw blood for a CBC, type and cross
her for a blood transfusion immediately.
The nursing students and nurse get to work, as I continue with my
patient, who also needs admitted.
Once done, I make my way over to the bed and start to talk to this dad
and his daughter. One month, he
says she has been sick. They are
from the coast, where there is lots of malaria, but they recently moved back
home, not far from the hospital and when she wasn’t getting better they came
in. Her heart is racing, her
breathing is labored, she is bleeding from her gums and she barely has strength to talk to me.
We collect the blood and get it to the lab so they can work on the blood
she is going to need to survive. I
still don’t know why she hardly had any blood in her body, but I am glad that
Kudjip Nazarene Hospital was there to help. I am thankful that we have nurses and doctors who want to help those who
are sick, with a lab that works and functions and can give blood to those who
need it. Not just blood from men,
but that we can also share about the living, saving blood of Christ that has
cleansed us from our sins. It isn’t
just this life on earth that we are seeking to save, but life for eternity
too.