Medical Outreach Part 3

So, Tuesday ended badly and unfortunately my attitude carried into Wednesday morning. I was still extremely frustrated which only increased when a scrub nurse tried to teach me the different surgical instruments. He had a thick accent and it was hard for me to understand anything he said. We were both about to explode when thankfully a surgeon asked me to scrub in for an inguinal hernia. At least that was something slightly familiar. I tried to remind myself, "Katie, you told God you would make yourself available to serve in whatever way you could" but I felt as if I was at a breaking point. In my last blog, I had said that I'm thankful I didn't relocate and this day was the main reason why. I assisted in 4 different surgeries: 2 inguinal hernia repairs, a bullet removal, and a lipoma removal. For each one I worked with a different surgeon and they were such an encouragement to me. They explained the procedures in detail, even taught them to me, and insisted I asked endless amounts of questions. One surgeon even made me repeat the steps of an inguinal hernia repair- intimidating but I felt like I had accomplished something when I could. What's more is that barbaric practices transformed into necessary actions to provide patients with the best chance of recovery under the current circumstances. For example, the "cut and tear" prevented unnecessary blood loss. Another surgeon took the time to teach me how to suture and let me close a couple patients up. He also let me administer the local anesthetic to the patient. Definitely wouldn't be able to do that back in the US right now!
I became sort of the theater pet. Anytime anything interesting was happening someone would call to me come and look or have me scrub into to assist. Altogether I assisted in over a dozen surgeries; mainly minor ones like hernia repairs, lipoma removals, and what not. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning I learned the scrub nurse position. US or Nigeria, I still think it's the most miserable nursing job there is. It did give me an opportunity to sneak in to see some other major surgeries. One woman had a tumor the size of a basketball removed from her stomach. I walked up to the front of the operating table to get a better view and the woman looked at me. Really freaked me out for a second because in the US for a surgery that intense the patient would be knocked out. What's more is that she only had one unit of blood and no other fluids infusing. There's no way that replaced all the blood I saw spilling onto the floor. I wanted to comfort her but what could I say? Wow, that looks painful...don't think that would be helpful. I was thankful for a language barrier at that point. It was too awkward for me so I left pretty soon after coming. I didn't want her to feel as if she was on display.
The week was coming to a close and although I was very grateful for the learning experiences I had, I could not wait to leave. Plus, we got to end early Friday because the king was having us over for dinner at his palace later that evening. We were just finishing up packing away the medical supplies. When suddenly some police officers came up. They were carrying the body of a young man who had shot a local muslim leader. In retaliation, they smashed his head in. The police literally just dumped him on the ground in front of the theater and as our chief surgeon argued with them about what to do, I watched the circle of blood grow larger and larger around the guy's head. Not that anything could've been done for him, his murders were intent on his death and achieved that, but I thought how sad this was. I know what he did was wrong but how did his death solve anything except perpetuate a cycle of killing? Now his family and friends would avenge his death- where does that end? What really disgusted me was not the cruel death or even the people arguing over what to do with the body but the others who gathered around taking pictures with their camera phones. How disrespectful, how inhumane...this man is a human being. What dignity this man had left after killing the muslim leader was taken from him. It's that kind of ignorance and apathy that makes these horrible things ok. I felt a bit helpless. We had been working all week to help people, save some lives even. To end with such with this- it made our efforts seem almost futile. What can we do in such a corrupt world that would make a difference? Then I began to think you know, that's why we have a Savior. This is why Christ sacrificed himself for us, that people could be saved from lives of sin and death. Things don't have to be this way, they aren't suppose to be. Instead of questioning or staying angry, I thanked God for salvation. What a gift it is to be rescued from that. Makes me wonder how someone can chose not to believe in Christ.
Everyone got cleaned up and we all crammed into vehicles to head out for dinner at the king's palace. I had been there earlier that week and I knew it was no Buckingham, like they had said, but it was good to have a night of fun after a long week. They gave everyone a tour of the place and had dinner in the front courtyard. Two young guys performed a traditional African dance for us which was kind of odd because they were wearing jeans and polos while doing it. Didn't seem to so traditional to me. Anyways, the evening challenged me because I was exhausted- not at all in the mood for partying- and everyone wants to take pictures with the batouris. Having my photograph taken is one of my least favorite things and I had to do it countless times that night, sometimes by myself which was slightly annoying. I was thankful when the evening was over and even more so when we arrived back in Jos the next day. I was really looking forward to a hot shower but of course I had none. I didn't care though because it felt so good to be back!