Hit and Run

The patient being carried by his family.

The other night just as I was cleaning up after a birth, two honking cars showed up at the gate.

After they rushed in clamoring and banging walls, they unloaded their cargo on our bed. A hit and run victim roughly 40 years old and very drunk lay curled up on his side.

Unconscious and bleeding, he didn’t make a sound as his friend moved his fractured leg around like a puppet on a string.

It flopped awkwardly to one side --the two pieces were severed beneath the skin. But most of the bleeding was coming from his head via a star-shaped gash.

Not skilled in emergency medicine, I started an IV and waited for Dr. Tom to arrive.

Tom worked hard to get the leg braced and the patient eventually woke up. I got to suture his head (which was totally cool and nothing like perineal tissue!) and we kept him over night.

It took his family a day or so to rally up enough money to get him to Wau for surgery, but they eventually did so; and he left on a bus this afternoon.

Please pray for him to get the pins in place and heal properly so he can walk again. I’d hate to see them amputate....