Mending Bodies and Healing Hearts

The other day, I was reading through my blog posts realizing how depressing the last few have been. It think they reflect how difficult it has been this year especially in the past few months. There has been so much tragedy lately. So many losses from dengue and other culprits. Yesterday we lost a 20 yo otherwise healthy young man to complications of a brain injury from a car accident. He is the third young guy we have lost this year due to such accidents. Life is so fragile. We take life for granted when in reality we need to be ready to face eternity at any moment. I vowed to not talk about depressing things this month, but here I am! Let's change topics. I am going to tell you a funny and yet quite embarrassing story. Those of you who know me well might actually find it surprising that I had not done this sooner.  One of my many jobs here at the hospital is "Volunteers Logistics Coordinator". Once a potential volunteer has submitted their application and been proved...

Dengue Fever.... just hearing someone say it sends chills up my spine. So many people I know have had it. I have watched it steal the lives of several otherwise healthy people and of three unborn babies. A four year old boy is currently admitted in our hospital fighting for his life.  Dengue is typically found in tropical climates and is spread by mosquitos. A female mosquito becomes infected with the virus when it bites an infected person. After about a week incubation period, it then bites a healthy person transferring the virus to them. Incubation in a healthy person takes about four to ten days after the inicial bite. The infected person develops an extremely high fever often reaching as high as 104F with shaking chills, severe bone and joint pain, headaches, vomiting, a red rash, and swollen glands along with the classic low white blood cell count (usually illnesses cause the white blood cell count to go up) and a low platelet count. The fever usually breaks after about a...

One of our new moms died this week leaving behind a beautiful premature baby girl. It was the first maternal death I have experienced in the three years that I have been here and quite possibly the first in the 20 year existence of the the hospital. It was tragic for all of those involved. The culprit .... acute fatty liver of pregnancy. It used to be that this condition was 100% fatal but with so many incredible advances in technology it has lowered to 18% in the United States. That is still pretty high. Acute fatty liver of pregnancy is a very rare condition that can happen toward the end of pregnancy or even up to a few days after delivery.  It happens when the expectant mother has a genetic disorder that causes the "cell's powerhouse, the mitochondira, are not breaking down fatty acids that help the body process proteins, carbohydrates, or lipids(fat). This causes fat molecules to build up in the essential organs such as the liver, kidneys, and even the placenta res...

Every Thursday night our missionary community comes together for a time of worship and prayer. I love these nights because I get to hear stories of God at work in the hospital that I might not have been part of that week. One such story really stuck out to me that I want to share with you.  Coke - now I'm not talking about cocaine but the other type of Coke that is actually just as deadly. There is nothing quite like it. Popping the metal top of a cold glass bottle on a hot day. Hearing the loud fizz and that cold first gulp. And then it fizzes back up your nose. Ahh. Heavenly.  Hondurans drink so much coke that two liter bottles are just not big enough so that fizzy sugar goodness comes in three liter bottles. Brilliant! Bring it on. But then there is the saying that there is too much of a good thing. Hondurans love their coke so much that they bring they bring their 3 liter bottle to work in the blazing sun in the fields all day instead of water (to all you coke lovers o...

Working in the medical field, my job is to take care of all people ranging from ones who are feeling miserable from a cold to those knocking on death’s door and all those in between. Medical care has some so far that doctors can prolong the lives of many people who otherwise would no longer be with us. It is truly amazing to think that someone in heart failure can live for even decades with the use of some medications the patient can take at home.Temporarily putting someone on a machine to breathe for them can allow to make a full recovery from an illness or tragic accident. In the United States medical care has reached such an incredible level that no matter how miraculous a person’s recovery from a hopeless situation, it is attributed to the advanced medical care they received. Did you know that God still does miracles even in the States? We just refuse to see or acknowledge God at work. A lot of people think that they need to go to a developing country to serve God or to see H...

Hey friends!  Sorry I haven't sent out many updates lately. Life has been crazy here as usual. The past week has been crazy with 4 code blue's and many other critical emergencies. Losing so many patients in one week is pretty discouraging but God never fails to work in middle of it all. This post is from one of our long term missionary doctors who I have been privileged to work along side of for the past three years. Check out his blog. Ryan is doing a daily blog update  until Easter that gives a great glimpse into the work going on here every day. The miracle told in this post happened yesterday. It was incredible to be part of one of God's great miracles.   Dios les bendiga,  Elizabeth Lazarus  The torrent of emergencies at the hospital continues… I guess that’s what happens at hospitals, eh? But I’m talking about ‘Code Blue’s,’ which are emergencies that require a special response from everyone in the hospital. See Day 15 for a brief expla...

Change... there are two groups of people: the adventurous group who hears the word and thinks "Yes!!! A new adventure!" and then there is the group of people(of which I am in) that thinks it is a curse word.  The very sound of someone saying the word sends a chill up my spine and caused many tantrums when I was a child.  Even still, it makes me cringe in anticipation of the loss and the pain that it brings with it. The loss of the familiar, the loss or change of friendships, the growing pains that come with it, the fear of the unknown.  In a large mission like this with a big hospital, a children's home, a school, and a church it seems like it is always in a state of change as missionaries come and go.  Missions has changed drastically over the past generation. It used to be that missionaries committed their entire lives to bringing the Gospel to one people group  but now "long term missions" is any commitment of more than a year with majority of volunteers c...