At the
end of clinic, the ER nurses asked me to see a 7 yo boy who was previously
healthy and now wasn't responding. A
quick history and physical led me to believe he was sick from cyanide
poisoning. I quickly gave him the
cyanide antidote and within 5 minutes he opened his eyes and was moving
around. Within 30 minutes he was sitting
up eating.
Later
that night, I was called to the ER for an unconscious patient. When I arrived, I found a man who only
complained of a headache that morning, and now was unconscious after a seizure. Further examination determined he had
suffered a stroke, and likely wasn't going to make it. His family told me he was a pastor and they
were devastated that we couldn't reverse his illness. 2 hours later, he died.
Around 3am,
I got called to the medical ward for an unconscious patient. I went and found a man in his 30s who was
known to have chronic liver disease. He
wasn't getting better despite being on the ward for 2 days, his liver and
kidneys were failing and he was bleeding in his stomach. All of this combined to make him unresponsive
on exam, and once again I had a discussion with the family that their loved one
wasn't going to make it.
3 hours
later, I got called back to the ward because this man was actually dying
now. As I was there, I briefly talked to
an old man who had pus in his lung that we drained with a chest tube. He was sitting up talking, his wife at his
bedside. I also stopped in to see how
Joshua, the 7 yo boy, was doing from the night before. He was sitting up smiling, he put hand out
for me to shake, and was ready and anxious to go home. I discharged him and went home to get ready
for the start of my day.
One hour
later, about when I am getting ready to leave for work, I get a call that the
man I was just talking to, whom had the pus drained from his lung, had died and
there are 2 patients in the ER. One of
the ER pts was a 19 yo young girl who had been sick for a few days, with
diarrhea, shortness of breath and cough.
She looked really sick. I gave
her some IV fluid and antibiotics, ordered blood tests and an Xray, then I went
to see the patients in the medical ward.
Just after rounds, I checked back on this young girl and found out she
was HIV positive. Her parents were at
her bedside as she passed away before our eyes.
Within 12
hours, 4 people, that I had cared for, had died. I don't always know what to do with all the
death I see here. I often wonder if
there was something I could have done differently, but too often, the next
patient distracts me with the attention that they need and I am forced to move
on. I wish all disease could be reversed
like cyanide poisoning with a medicine that restores our health. Death has no prejudice for young or old, man
or woman - it comes for us all. Just as
within a night of death and darkness there was a ray of hope in Joshua, who
lived, survived and went home. There is
also can be a ray of hope in our lives amidst the darkness and the suffering -
Christ. He doesn't stop us from dying or
stop the suffering we face, but He strengthens us as we go through it and walks
with us. I don't understand it all, but
I know He is with us. John 8:12 says,
"I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light
of life."
