Hope against hope.

Dear friends,

Yesterday I got the request to write a brief patient story for our supporters. I want to share this story with all of you.

Q, a 14 year-old girl, was admitted to a medical school associated hospital 5 hours away from our small hospital. Her admission diagnosis was meningitis but she developed a rare complication, called ARDS (Acute respiratory distress syndrome), a condition that is often fatal, even in a sophisticated environment. She was promptly transferred to their ICU and intubated and placed on a ventilator.

Chest X-ray showing her condition. The lungs should appear black: their whiteness revealing how critically congested they were.

After a day they changed their mind and brought her to our hospital where we do not have the facility for long term ventilatory support. She was critically ill, febrile and had a very low blood pressure. She was admitted to our critical care unit (which really is a general ward, next to the nursing station) and treated with iv antibiotics for the previously documented meningitis, maximum oxygen and blood pressure support with dopamine. The evening of day 3, I was on call and even though it was not even 9:00pm many patients were asleep and relatives were scattered on the floor, sleeping on blankets. The nurse told me that Q had not produced urine since 3:00pm. I went to check on her and found her restless, fighting for every breath. Her father and mother were sitting next to her with anguish on their faces, holding her hand and stroking her sweat covered face. Usually I do a pretty good job separating myself emotionally from patient's suffering: but this night it did not work. I sat down with them and checked what I needed to check and after I had fought back the tears I asked permission to pray for healing in the name of Jesus, which was granted.

I had the day off the next day but the intern wrote: "doing better than previous, sitting herself, eating food." We referred her to pastoral care for ongoing prayer and family support.

Today, 8 days after admission she was discharged with a smile on her face! I said goodbye with the words, "The Lord has healed you!"

I cannot prove that all of this was not coincidence.

The blind man said after his healing, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see." (John 9:25).

One thing I know: Q was on the brink of death. Now she is walking home. Praise the Lord!

Shalom, X.

(N.B. This recent true story is reproduced by permission of X. But because it happened in a country with a majority non-Christian population, names and locations have been withheld to safeguard confidentiality.)