Foatgina

Warning very log blog entry ahead!


Nothing about the work here is every simple or straight forward and we are learning that once again with a very special patient named Foatgina. She came to us with massive tumors surrounding her face. To complicate things a little more she is pregnant. When she was first admitted to the wards and we found out she was pregnant, it was too early in the pregnancy for us to operate as it would put the baby at risk. So she stayed on the ward for a few days as we tried to sort out what we could do and when.

At 2 pm each afternoon on the wards, the evening shift nurses come in to relieve the day shift, we pray and then the patients are handed over. Then the day shift nurses stick around for a while taking the patients up to deck 7 to get some fresh air and some sun. See the hospital is situated on deck 3 which has no windows at all, so it's good for the patients to be able to get out at least a little bit everyday (its good for the nurses too!). When Foatgina would go outside she would grab a chair and walk forward a ways and sit by herself while all the other patients stayed together playing, laughing, and socializing. One day one of the translators came up to me and asked why she would so often go and sit all by herself. Try and put yourself in her shoes, I said. Before she came to the ship she was most likely secluded. She would be outcast in society, people would stare and talk and think she was cursed. So most likely she stayed hidden away spending her days alone. For Foatgina spending her days and nights in a room filled with 10 other patients and caregivers, nurses, translators, doctors, and all the other general commotion that accompanies life on the ward had to be completely overwhelming. This was her time of escape from it all. I spent a few day caring for her. She was one of those patients who initially didn't want to look you in the eye, didn't want to smile. I like these patients, I like to slowly work on them and see if I can get them to warm up. So I was trying my best to win Foatgina over. Then one day as we walked down the stairs to come back from deck 7, she grabbed my hand and held it all the way down. Now we were friends.

So Foatgina went to our hospitality center. A place where patients from far away can stay after discharge typically if they need to return to the ship for physical therapy or dressing changes or whatever the case may be. So she went there to wait until she was at a safe enough gestation that she could be cleared for surgery. Everyone was anxiously awaiting this time because as we waited the tumors grew. So at last it was time and yesterday was the big day.

With big surgeries like this they take lots of time, lots of doctors, lots of resources, and lots of prayer. We anticipated that she would lose lots of blood and tried to be as prepared for this as possible. On the Africa Mercy we have a walking blood bank known as the crew. When a patient needs blood we look through the book of crew members who have signed up to be donors and check for the same blood type then we call that crew member down and make sure the blood matches. Then the blood is taken from the crew member and taken directly for transfusion into the patient.

Foatgina has B+ blood which is one of the more uncommon types its seems for available donors on the ship. At the beginning of the day we knew of 3 potential donors but the doctors wanted to have at least 11. So the hunt began. Before surgery even started they made an overhead announcement asking for anyone willing to donate and not knowing their blood type to come to the lab and check. They got enough to proceed and surgery started midday.

I was just finishing dinner around 6pm when Naomi from the lab came up to me and said they were still needing more donors and were going to have to overhead page again, she wondered if I would come down and help draw blood to check peoples types. I was more than happy to do this. I stopped working on the wards about 2 weeks ago and jumped at the chance to be a real live nurse again, sticking needles into people!!

So after the next 5 or so hours, 3 overhead pages, a little person to person recruiting, and even some guilt trip laying, and some hand holding down the stairs we ended up with about 12 more B+ donors. I even learned how to test for blood types myself... so I may have a future career as a lab tech.

My good friend Lindsay said it was like the loaves and the fishes and oh boy was it. The day started with 3 potential donors and by days end we had 18 separate donors give to Foatgina and some more in reserve! It was neat to see the ship pull together like that. Between the prayers and the blood donors, Foatgina pulled through surgery. They were not able to get all the tumor and she is currently in the ICU but they expect that maybe in 10 or so days after she has had some time to heal, they will try again to get the rest of the tumor. With her pregnancy getting farther along every day, she is about 6 months now, we need to try the surgery sooner rather than later.

Please be prayerful for Foatgina and her baby. Also please be lifting up the nurses and the medical staff. The wards have been very busy and there are currently 3 ICU patients (we only have room for 3). We have been reminded in a big way this outreach that we are fighting much more than disease, we are fighting a spiritual battle. At least we can rest in the fact that we are on the winning side!