Since being back Jeff has been attending patients each weekday morning at our house. It didn’t take long for the word to get out that “doctor Jep” had come back. Each morning he sees about 10-15 patients plus scheduling some procedures for afternoons. Of course, people come at all hours seeking medical attention. This morning – Saturday, he has seen two minor emergencies and it isn’t even 10:00.
Each morning Jeff shares a Bible story with those who are waiting on our front porch to be seen. More often than not, the patients speak up afterwards, sharing about what the story meant to them. This has generated some great life applications. Once, after Jeff told the story about the Pharisees asking if a man born blind was because he sinned or his parents, a lady shared that she had always wondered why her child was born with “special needs”, but now she felt encouraged knowing that God really does have a plan for his life. On another day, after hearing a Bible story Jeff told, A lady said “I want to follow that God.”
I know that the nurses and staff miss him at the health outpost. Several of them have come to our house specifically to ask him to come back. But Jeff tells them that he doesn’t have the freedom to preach about Jesus at the health outpost. At home, he can do whatever he wants. He goes over to visit them from time to time to trade out medical supplies, just to communicate that we still love them and that we’re all working together on the side of good health.
Some interesting medical cases:
A lady in a diabetic coma was brought to our house. Her blood sugar was 30 and she was unresponsive. Jeff and Pete tried to give her sugar water but she wouldn’t swallow. We had no IV glucose (the health outpost doesn’t either), so Jeff sent her to the nearest city (45 minutes away). The following day we heard that she was doing well.
A guy was in his field chopping wood with his “homemade” axe – a blade and handle attached together by wrapped cloth. He hit a hard knot in the wood and the axe head flew off and cut him very deeply in the face. He was bleeding profusely. We were afraid that he would have to drive the 5 hours to Asuncion to have his face sewn, but (praise God), there was a surgeon just 45 minutes away who was willing to help.
A 10 year old boy came with a 3 inch piece of wood stuck in his groin. Ouch!
A 20 year old swallowed poison in an attempt to kill herself. She was unresponsive and Jeff sent her Caazapa (45 minutes away). Not much else to be done, really.
We went to visit a friend of mine and while we were there their 4 year old daughter stuck her hand in an electric corn grinder. Her middle finger tip had been cut through the bone and was hanging on by very little. Jeff brought her home and did the best he could to stitch it back together. 3 weeks later, it’s looking great.
A 65 year old lady came with a very rapid pulse (about 190/ minute) with extreme fatigue and very low blood pressure. Jeff tried several maneuvers to slow her heart down, including massaging her neck over the carotid artery, squatting down while blowing air against her closed lips and nose, rubbing the sides of her eyeballs, plunging her face in ice water. Nothing worked. Then he started an IV and gave her a shot of Amiodarone, an antiarrythmic medication, and her heart rate returned to normal in less than a minute.
One lady had a blood pressure of 270/ 150 with no symptoms!
ON A LIGHTER NOTE:
After clinic hours a couple arrived with their son. When Jeff asked them what the emergency was they said, "We think our son's nose meat is growing." Jeff said, "That's not really an emergency. You need to come back during clinic hours."
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