Our First Surgery! (4/3/01)

-

We performed our first operation at Hospital Loma de Luz yesterday!  Actually, it was in our temporary operating room in the housing complex.  Dan DeCook, a surgeon from Holland, Michigan, (and missionary kid who grew up in Bangladesh) was here to assist.  We did an inguinal hernia repair with mesh on a 19-year-old guy from nearby Rio Esteben.  Chrysti Reeck, our nurse, “circulated”, and our Honduran “nurse aids” watched with interest.  We gave the patient valium by mouth before the procedure and used local anesthetic.  All went well!  We will see him back in a week.

Hopefully this will become a weekly event, since our waiting list is long.  We also soon hope to begin doing gastroscopy (looking into the stomach with a scope that the patient swallows).  As we continue to expand our services, we soon hope to see other surgeries offered via spinal anesthetic!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Semana Santa (3/31/2002)

-
Semana Santa, or “Holy Week” in Honduras, is much different than we are accustomed to in North America for the week before Easter. Semana Santa in Honduras, in one way, is like our Christmas or Thanksgiving. It is the time of year for family to be “home for the holidays” and to travel “over the rivers and through the rain forest”. Hondurans from around the country and the US return home in droves. Although the whole week is festive, Thursday and Friday are national holidays, creating a 4-day weekend. The peak of the festivities occurs on “Good Friday”. Unlike our Christmas, Semana Santa occurs during a hot time of year, so rather than celebrating in warm cozy homes, the beach becomes “the place to be”, adding a 4 th of July -like quality to the holiday. Preparations for the celebration actually begin early in the week. Celebrants cut palm branches and construct crude shelters on the beach to provide shade. More elaborate structures are built by vendors who will sell food and alcohol on...
Read more

Jake’s Drawings (5/1/01)

-
(Note from 2025: The view of salvation I had in 2001 has evolved significantly over time  [see Faith Reconsidered].   I believe God is much more “generous” with his love and salvation than most of us give him credit for. But, for historical sake, here is what I wrote in 2001.)   Our youngest son Jake loves to draw us pictures.  His people are beginning to be recognized as people.  He still has to give us considerable explanation of what else is in the picture, and the action involved.   Jake thinks his pictures are great!  Of course we encourage him and tell him they are good, leaving unsaid the qualifier “for a six-year old”.  Jake is adopted.  If we were to have chosen a son based on artistic ability defined as being able to produce great masterpieces, Jake would have fallen short.  Yet, he would have kept on drawing, and would even have entered the competition with high hopes!  He really ha...
Read more

The Relic (~6/1/2002)

-
As our family prepared for our trip to The States this year, my wife, Becky, led the kids in a study of the American Civil War. They read biographies and historical novels. We watched the mini-series “Gettysburg,” sensed the horrible nature of war, and developed the sense that no one really won. During our travels we visited Stone Mountain, Georgia and learned more about Sherman’s March to the Sea and the Battle of Atlanta. We visited Chickamauga and learned of the significance of Chattanooga to the South, and better understood the uniqueness of this battle that was fought predominantly in the forest. And we visited Gettysburg where we visualized the killing fields of Pickett’s Charge, the Wheatfield, Seminary and Cemetery Ridges and Little Round Top, where so many died in such a short time. It was an emotional experience! As a result of these travels, a word picture began to take form in my mind: To the farmer who plowed the field, now long silent except for the sounds of nature and t...
Read more