Screening day

     Wow, words cannot begin to describe the day we had today! Today was screening day (screening day is when all prospective patients come to be screened to see if they are eligible for the surgeries that the Afica Mercy provides). All of the ship crew, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, xray techs, and anyone else I forgot to mention were divided up into teams with different tasks for the day. I began my day at 3:20 am. We all had a quick breakfast. I packed my backpack the night before with suncreen, bugspray, antibacterial soap, beef jerkey, gatorade, water... all the essentials for a 12 hour day in hot West Africa. We all piled into a long line of landrovers at 4:20 am and caravaned to a sports stadium 30 minutes away in Lome. After our caravan got slightly lost on the way, we arrived safely, only a few minutes late. As we pulled up to the stadium in the pitch black of night, we saw a line of West Africans already standing in line to be seen. Later on I heard that people had begun lining up the day before at 5 pm in the evening. We entered the stadium and there were Mercy Ships staff with head lamps on because of how dark it was. We quickly finished setting up our stations. Patients began to arrive at 5:30 am. I was assigned to the health history team. Each nurse had an interpreter, which was invaluable. Over the course of the day, we saw 1,660 patients with a multitude of surgical needs. This means each of us saw approximately 90 patients throughout the day! Many of the patients required simple surgeries such as hernia repairs. Due to insufficient dietary intake, many of the patients had extremely large goiters. These and the hernia patients were categorized under general surgery. We also had patients come in with a variety of different facial tumors; they were categorized under Maxillofacial surgeries. We had some patients come in with old burns that had caused contractures or facial scarring. Those patients will be plastic surgery patients. 

     There were many sad situations today. I guess I still need to process a lot of what I saw. On the way home, I began thinking about all that I saw and I felt overwhelmed by it. I met a 67 year old man today, while retrieving his health history and pre-physical. He was accompanied by his son because he's in a wheelchair and cannot walk. Immediately when he came, I saw that on the right side of his face he had a massive facial tumor that had encroached upon his eye, forcing it closed. The tumor had impeded his nostrils so that he had to breathe through his mouth. It was grossly disfiguring. Beyond this, he smelled of feces and urine; there were flies buzzing and landing on him. (As a side note, last night before bed, I prayed that Jesus would give me compassion and help me to see these people through His eyes. I have been struggling with having a bad attitude this past week here, feeling homesick and really being quite self-centered.) When I met this man, my stomach immediately turned. The odors were intense. I knew he could see me, and I didn't want him to know I was disgusted. I hope he didn't know. It was then that the Holy Spirit brought to my mind how Jesus would touch the lepers without any regard for himself. Oh how I wish my initial reaction was more like Jesus' was. There were many times during the 15-20 minutes that I spent with him where I was able to touch him. At one point, his son and I took off his shoes and helped him to the scale to be weighed. When I put his shoes back on this feet after wards, I remembered that Jesus was willing to wash his disciples' dirty, dusty feet. I am thankful tonight as I reflect, for Christ's example because it was what got me through today. On the way home, several other nurses and I were discussing how helpless we felt today. For the 1,660 we saw, only 700-900 people will get their surgeries. That is not including all of the people we had to turn away today because we had reached our cap of people we could screen. There was a line that stretched around the gates of the stadium. When the announcement was made that we couldn't see any more patients, one man (who needed a hernia repair) bolted through the gate trying to run up to the stadium to be seen. He was not violent, but he was desperate to receive the surgery. I found out that it is only $600.00 to receive a hernia repair surgery at a local West African hospital, but these people are so poor that they cannot afford that.

     On the way home, I was trying to make sense of everything. Two things that God really impressed on me: 1) God created those people, including the man with the facial tumor in His image. These people are equally precious in His sight. Just because they smell, are disfigured, are poverty stricken, does not make them less in God's site. He knows the number of hairs on their heads. If He cares for the sparrows, how much more does He care for them. He loves them more than I ever could. 2) God is a Sovereign God, nothing is outside of His grasp. He will have justice in the end over a fallen world.

     Well that is all I have right now. I am still very overwhelmed by today. What I said in the beginning is so true, words cannot express what we saw today.