Oxygen: It's Not That Simple

Close your eyes and take a slow deep breath in through your nose and then out through your mouth. Now do it again.
That air that you're breathing, that's oxygen. Most of us go through our day not giving one thought about what we're breathing. Here at Hospital Loma de Luz we think about it ALL the time. As you have probably figured out, being a mission hospital in a rural part of Northern Honduras means that everything is just automatically more challenging. Hospitals in America have oxygen systems built right into the wall by the patient's beds. Just connect the readily available oxygen tubing to the regulator on the wall, turn the valve on, and voila! you have oxygen. So simple. Here it is not so simple. 

oxygen tanks lined in the
hallway waiting for use

Here, in Honduras, we have to go into La Ceiba, which is the nearest city to us, pick up huge tanks of oxygen in the back of a truck (not exactly the safest idea since these huge tanks, which ironically resemble World War II missiles, are highly flammable and explosive if not handled correctly), and carefully transport them back to the hospital. The hospital typically goes through 10 of these tanks a week which cost about $70 a piece so that is at least $700 worth of oxygen per week. Wow...That's just for oxygen.  
The number of available tanks is always in the back of our minds. The more patients that are in the hospital, the more oxygen we use.  
When we have a patient go into cardiac arrest at the hospital, one of the things that we always discuss as we are doing CPR is: IF we get a pulse back, and IF we put the patient on a ventilator (life support), do we even have enough oxygen in the hospital available to support that person. It is a pretty gut wrenching decision to have to make to cease resuscitation efforts because we do not have enough oxygen to keep them alive. Thankfully we typically do have enough oxygen. 

an oxygen tank set up for use

Almost two weeks ago we were in a crisis. The hospital was (and still is) overflowing with critically ill patients. We were having to shuffle oxygen around constantly for the patients who needed it the most. It was in the middle of the night that Dr Ryan called me by radio saying that there was woman moments away from delivering a premature baby at 32 weeks and he needed my help. Baby "E" was already here when I walk into the hospital just moments later. He was doing remarkably well breathing on his own but he needed oxygen to help support his premature lungs. All of our oxygen was in use by people who all desperately needed it as well. We had to make a difficult decision to take oxygen from a patient who we did not think would make it through the night in order to save Baby "E".  Praise the Lord that both that patient and Baby "E" made it through the night!
Baby "E" will be two weeks old tomorrow! He is off of oxygen and his suck reflex is getting stronger. Once he is eating well without a feeding tube, he will be able to go home with his parents and older brother. 

sweet Baby "E"

Prayer requests:
1) emotional, spiritual, and physical strength for all of us missionaries and our Honduran staff as the hospital has been very busy lately
2) more nurses! - we are in desperate need of more trustworthy Honduran nurses to help with our growing patient census 
3) financial support for the next year - I will be returning to Maine for the month of May to continue fundraising for the next year and am available to speak at churches and Bible studies. Please contact me if you would like to donate financially or Donate online
4) Soft hearts - for the hearts of the every growing number of patients that we see, that they would be open the Gospel

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E-mail Elizabeth