The 'Gamecock Girl Art' Blog: A Call to Nursing

   With my last post you'd think, "how can an American team get anything done at that hospital?" That's what we thought after the first day. It took some brainstorming. I can not say enough how impressed I am with our nurses. They became doctors on this trip. I watched them struggle to translate simple things like, "have you had a fever?" (There are no thermometers.) I've watched them sit down and do math problems (there are no calculators) to figure out the doses of medicines they had never heard of. I watched them take notes at 11pm to learn new skills and ways to diagnose. I watched them drive away in a car to transport a premature, malnourished baby to another hospital- a hospital who's only step up is they have an oxygen machine. One nurse held the body and hand-pumped air into his lungs while another nurse held his head still on the CRAZY BUMPY african roads. May I also mention that one of these nurses flipped her car only a couple weeks ago, so she has been extremely scared all week while driving? None of these things mattered when it came to another human-being's life.
   We've learned that the people here have a very fatalistic way of thinking- they believe that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. Their actions do not matter. They are not responsible for anything. As bad as the Ugandan nurses seem to me, the patients seem just as bad. I remember my mom taking me to the doctor, the doctor prescribing something, and my mom telling the doctor, "No. That is not good enough. We are not leaving until you prescribe her [this]." The patients will hear what their child was supposed to get, yet not ask for it when they don't see it. The culture is so different. People die all the time here. You grow up watching people die. They don't understand there are actions (many times simple) that can prevent these deaths, that they can fight for life.
   Let me tell you the story of the baby that was transported to the hospital. One of our nurses Alicia, discovered a premature baby whose twin had already died. The mom was only 16. I'm pretty sure she said the baby was fine (Another thing we learned is no one here wants to disappoint, so they tell you whatever they think you want to hear.) but Alicia opened the blanket to discover an extremely malnourished and jaundiced baby. She could see his heart, his ribs, etc. He was only breathing 10x a minute opposed to the 60 something times he should have been. Finally they got it out of the mom that he had not eaten since birth. Our nurses said they wanted to cry when they discovered this baby was a full week old. After much difficulty we learned the mom wasn't breastfeeding because of some kind of superstition. She believed the baby would be cursed if she breastfed him before certain rituals were done. The ugandan worker who translated for us was the only assertive ugandan woman I've met here. She had us pray over the mom and baby (in their language) that the baby would not be cursed and would start sucking. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Immediately another one of our nurses, Amanda, went to put the breast pump (a cut-up plastic water bottle with some kind of suction thing taped to it) to the mom's breast in hopes there was still some left for us to use in an eye dropper to drip milk into the baby's mouth, however our translator wouldn't let her! She said, "we prayed he would suck so he will suck". As frustrating as this was our nurses kept their cool the whole trip. After the translator left they squeezed some milk out for the baby. By this point he had an I.V. and seemed more alert. He actually started sucking! Understandably the nurses were still very worried about him. The next day he got to the point where he was only breathing six times a minute. This is when they took the car to the hospital in the city. (The hospital does have an ambulance (a van with a light?) but it is unreliable.) Alicia and Katie, our other amazing nurse who transported the baby, did say the mom was shaking and showing emotion. The Chief Medical Officer of our hospital went and pulled the father out of the local drinking hole and gave the family money for food, expenses. This morning Katie and Alicia went back to the new hospital to check on the baby. At first they heard he had died. Then they heard, no, his parents unplugged his oxygen and left at 5am. Our Chief Medical Officer said he will go to the village and find the family. He was not happy, and we're sure he will do it. He is great, but I'm not sure he would have done all of this without the nurses' persistence. I think now we understand though, that he knew something like this could happen. Still, I'm glad our nurses have been fighting since they got here, while at the same time "being patient in affliction". (Romans 12)
   I went to a surgery while here and started blacking out. Nursing will never be my gift. At least I have the privilege of mobilizing nurses. Thank you all nurses for everything you do. Nursing is a beautiful calling. We need you here in Uganda. We're setting up short and long-term trips. But let me tell you, the bar has been set. Thank you Alicia, Amanda, and Katie.

...for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
-Romans 11:29