The Mother Who Should Have Died

     Strept throat is one of those things that we all get at least once in our lives. I, for one, have had it several times. Not a big deal right? One just goes to the doctor for antibiotics and that's that. Did you know that antibiotics that one is prescribed for strept throat are not actually for your throat but to protect your heart? Left untreated, the group A streptococcus virus can cause inflammation of the kidneys and rheumatic fever leading to joint pain and potentially damage to the valves of the heart.  That is what happened to Digna. 
Digna is a twenty-one year old woman who had untreated strept throat at one time. It had infected the mitral valve of her heart causing it to narrow significantly. This narrowing of the mitral valve causes increased pressure in the heart which in turn, has caused Digna's heart to enlarge significantly. 

Digna's enlarged heart 

        Upon coming into our clinic about a year ago for her failing heart, Dr Isaac told Digna that if she ever became pregnant again, she would most likely die. Pregnancy is a strain on a healthy heart and can be fatal in an already failing one. It was just a few months later that Digna returned to the clinic pregnant with her second baby.  In the States, Digna would have immediately been sent to a hospital that specializes in high risk pregnancies. Here in Honduras, Hospital Loma de Luz is that hospital. Not only do we deliver the low risk pregnancies but the high risk ones as well. 
       I was scheduled to work night shift the afternoon that Digna came into the hospital. Dr Isaac was worried that her placenta was pulling away from her uterus prematurely causing potentially fatal consequences to mother and baby. We needed to deliver her baby that night but delivering the baby was just as dangerous not delivering her. There were pros and cons to doing a c-section vs a natural delivery that the doctors had to think through. Pushing would put to much strain on her heart and doing a c-section could cause uncontrollable bleeding and an extremely low blood pressure from the medications. 

Digna 

          Dr Isaac consulted with the other OB doctors here. There were about 4 or 5 doctors in her room discussing her case. We needed a plan and to be prepared for the worst. The best thing would be to do a c-section with an epidural to better control her blood pressure. Our hospital does not due epidurals because we don´t have the equipment nor an anesthesiologist who knows how to do one. While standing across the room listening to the doctors talk, I watched Digna´s failing heart literally pound out of her chest.
         By God´s grace, we found an epidural kit covered in dust in a corner and we had a visiting nurse anesthetist, Katie, who knew is proficient in doing them. Finally we had a plan! As Katie put in the epidural, I helped our lab tech take a pint of blood from one of Digna´s family members to have on hand in case of emergent need. 
      It was about 11pm when we finally wheeled Digna to the operating room. I cleaned her tiny belly (she did not look 9 months pregnant!) and covered her with sterile drapes as the doctors scrubbed in. We paused to pray to our Great God for His hand on the lives of Digna and her baby and then the operation began. It was just a few minutes later that Dr Isaac put a tiny crying baby boy into my hands. 

Digna´s tiny baby boy

      Digna and her baby had survived the c-section but were not out of the woods yet. I sat by Digna´s side in the recovery room for hours closely monitoring her vital signs. It was until about 5am that she was stable enough to move her to an in patient room. Digna slowly improved over the next few days and eventually went home. 
     About two weeks ago I was driving by the gate on my 4 wheeler when I saw Digna walking up the hill without help with a huge smile on her face! Praise God for bringing the right people together at the right time! God is good! 

Prayer requests
1) there is a young man, Jose, admitted in the hospital who is recovering from a severe brain injury from running into a cow at a high speed on his moto. It is a miracle that he is alive
2) The next couple of months are going to be kind of rough as two of my good friends and my dear roomie Lizzie are returning to the States for good. I am going to miss them all terribly.