Tomasa
Pam and Janet giving TLC to Tomasa
Ynge, Janet and Charlie assessing Tomasa.
UPDATE: June 20, 2006 PM. Patient Crisis.
8:30 PM
There are some significant concerns tonight.
Tomasa, one of our patients that we operated on this afternoon, is having some complications, with a blood pressure that’s running too low.
Pam and Janet and Chris and Ynge are at the clinic tonight, sitting at our patient’s bedside, providing the IV fluids and medicines. The rest of us are in touch with them via our team cell phone, but we are an uncomfortable distance away.
They are praying; we are praying.
10:30 PM
from Arlen:
The cell phone rang. Tomasa is worsening; her BP has dropped more and she feels worse.
Pam and Janet are doing what they can, and now are praying for Tomasa.
Several calls go to different rooms at the hotel, and we gather at the front entrance in the dark. Our driver, Adolpho, gets in touch with another mission team’s driver staying at our hotel, and he agrees to take us to the clinic in his 12-passenger van (the twisting mountain roads are really not safe for a big bus after dark).
David, Nancy, Charlie, Lucy, Brenda S., Maaike, Kevin, Barbara, and I head toward the clinic. Mackenzie, Martin, and others stay at the hotel and pray.
11:30 PM
from Arlen, at the clinic:
Tomasa is pale, obviously anemic. Her BP is very low, in spite of 3 liters of IV fluid. David, Charlie, and I go about assessing her. Barbara sticks her finger for a quick blood count.
Her hematocrit is low.
With fluids and NeoSynephrine, David gets her blood pressure up.
She will need blood. We have no blood bank.
But we have Barbara, from our own BFMC lab, and she has her blood typing cards, her blood collection bags, and her knowledge. She did a blood typing of Tomasa, and we volunteered. I happened to be the first to be typed, and I have the same O positive blood as Tomasa has.
Chris made me some orange juice, and I went to the dental chair where Barbara took 500 cc’s of my blood. Brenda carried it to Tomasa’s bedside, David spiked the blood bag, and my blood flowed down the tube and into Tomasa.
I must say, this is the most unique experience I’ve ever had. I’m sitting here in Camanchaj, Guatemala, watching my blood flow into Tomasa, a Mayan woman who speaks only Qui’che, who trusts us to care for her in our surgery clinic…..amazing.
This will be a long night….for Tomasa and for us.
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Tomasa |
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Pam and Janet giving TLC to Tomasa |
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Ynge, Janet and Charlie assessing Tomasa. |