Emergency Transport

We usually have several emergency situations when Open Arms (OA) conducts medical clinics in developing countries. Patients will wait for our free clinics instead of going to the doctor/hospital, because they are so poor. That can result in a life-threatening condition by the time we see them in our medical tent.

We have transported patients to the hospital several times a day at previous medical clinics. Thankfully, the only emergency we had this time was on our last day at Kambi Teso.

The doctors had finished seeing patients and the last prescriptions were being filled in the pharmacy when I overheard Rachel say a woman needed to go to the hospital. The doctor thought something had ruptured in her abdomen, infection had set in, and she needed emergency surgery.

Did anyone pray with her? The critically ill woman was sitting in a chair while the medical tent was being dismantled around her. Ethan and I were about to pray for her when we were told that she had been waiting a long time and needed to be taken immediately. No problem. We assisted her to the transport vehicle, praying as we went. She was sweating and shaking from intense pain, barely able to walk, and crying quietly.

When we got her to the transport van, it had a flat tire. That discovery resulted in a lot of shouting in Kiswahili and English. Chaos ensued. We saw two other vehicles nearby and approached them to see if they could help us get the woman to the hospital. The people in the first car told us they were full and drove away. We pleaded with the people in the second vehicle to help us. They were from AMPATH and had joined us that day to test people for HIV/AIDS. Their truck was also full of people and equipment.

More confusion surrounded us as we continued to pray for the woman. Then our prayer changed. Lord, this is a really frustrating situation, but if the reason for this delay is so we can have more time to pray with this woman, may it be to Your glory.

We had found her a chair, but realized she was getting too warm sitting in the sun. We moved her to a shady spot several yards away and kept praying. Then I asked Ethan, “Did you notice that she walked stronger when we moved her?” He agreed. That encouraged us to pray with confidence that the Lord was healing the woman.

Finally, Michael from AMPATH came over and told us he and another man would give up their seats in their truck so the sick woman and doctor could be taken to the hospital. We thanked them profusely and agreed to give them a ride in exchange. Before moving the woman again, we asked Michael to interpret for us. We believed she was being healed. He was able to confirm that her pain was nearly gone and she was improving. Alleluia! She rose from the chair on her own and needed little assistance to the AMPATH truck.

That night, the doctor reported that she was not rushed to surgery as anticipated, because she was doing so much better. They were going to observe her overnight and make a decision the following day. To God be the GLORY!