I never wanted to be a doctor. A nurse yes, but never a doctor.
A realization that has been hard for me on the race is that the people in third world countries consider me to be a doctor. At most of my ministry sites, I have been the one with the most medical training. This made me by default the “doctor.” My teammates would be saying the same exact thing that I was saying, but simply the fact that I’m a nurse would make the people listen to me when they weren’t listening to my teammates. I cannot count how many times I’ve been consulted about aches and pains. Up to Cambodia, I had never had to deal with anything serious. The most nursing I had to do was cleaning and dressing minor scrapes or administering tylenol.
This all changed the other night.
Every night at 7:30 PM, my team and I would gather with the women and children of Teen Challenge for a time of prayer and praise. On this particular night, my team lost track of time and were 30 minutes late going over. When we arrived to the front door of the house, the doors were already locked. We could see into the front room were children were playing. We rapped on the door and the children ran to let us in. As soon as we entered, they grabbed our hands and pulled us into an adjoining room.
The women were all gathered beside the still form of C*. (C is one of the students at Teen Challenge. She is recovering from alcohol abuse and had been at Teen Challenge for only one month.)
C was groaning with pain. Angry red stripes ran across her chest and arms. Through a translator, I was informed that C was having severe chest pain. The stripes on her body was were she had scratched herself. In Cambodia, it is commonly believed that by scratching themselves in this manner, it will relieve pain. Continuing to use the translator, C said the pain was in her left arm and in her chest. She was short of breath with sweat covering her brow.
The team quickly gathered round and begin praying for C. The thought hit me that there would be no EMS coming. It was my responsibility to take care of C until we made it to the hospital. I had never been in this situation before. Back in the States, when one of my patients started going down, there was always more experienced nurses to help me. Now there was no one.
I prayed to God for wisdom as I gave C an aspirin. I wanted to get C to a hospital. The manager of the ministry informed me that the only vehicle available was a stick shift which she was unable to drive. She then had me call Koy, our contact. He wasn’t answering so Dani (my team leader) volunteered to drive. She, brave soul that she is, was willing to drive on the Cambodian roads.
We carried C to the van. Dani took the wheel and we were on the way to the hospital. Koy called back at this time and asked us to stop at his house (which was on the way to the hospital) and he would take over driving. Teen Challenge is located at least 45 minutes outside of Phnom Pehn and it was a wild ride. I sat beside C, praying and feeling her pulse, “please God, touch her.” At times her pulse felt weaker, but with all the bumps on the road it was hard to tell.
The ride felt like an eternity. I glanced out of the window, hoping to see Koy’s driveway. It was no where in sight so I turned my attention back to C. My heart skipped a beat. She was staring at the ceiling and it didn’t appear to be breathing. I quickly shook her and called her name. No response. She appeared to be dead. Praying even harder, I gave her a sternal rub. At this, she inhaled deeply and begin to respond.
I settled back into my seat, thanking God and paying close attention to C. If she was going unresponsive again, I wanted to be aware. Once more she begin staring. Again, she only responded to a sternal rub.
Finally we made it to Koy’s. He jumped into the van and then begin driving like a maniac. The roads are super crazy in Phnom Penh and there seem to be no traffic laws. It’s a common sight to see people driving up the wrong side of the road. C seemed to be doing better at this point. She sat up and begin answering Koy’s questions.
It was a huge relief when we arrived to ER. C walked to the waiting stretcher. It was crazy, just 10 minutes before she had been unresponsive but now she was climbing up on the stretcher.
As the stretcher rolled in to ER, I glanced around. ER consisted of a long room with stretchers lined up along the wall. There were no privacy curtains. Procedures were going on as we walked by. To my left was a man having respiratory difficulties. Further down a couple of beds was another man with ascites (fluid on his stomach) so bad, that at first glance I thought he was a woman 9 months pregnant. Patients were lying on stretchers, with their families close by their side.
C was rolled into a room off the main room. The doors were left open so we could continue see everything that was happening outside. We were left in the room, but shortly a doctor came to check on C. He listened to her heart quickly and asked her a few questions. He then turned to us and said it was stress related. He ordered an EKG and then walked out of the room.
The EKG came back normal. Her vital signs were stable. Her pain was subsiding. She was kept over night in the hospital to continue to monitor her and to run some tests on her liver.
It was a crazy night. I’m so thankful that C was okay and didn’t have a heart attack. I was NOT relishing the idea of CPR in a moving van. I really don’t know what happened in the van but it was incredibly scary when C went unresponsive. Maybe it was stress-related but I think God touched her. I’m thankful for my team. Their prayers and willingness to help was a huge blessing. And lastly, I’m thankful that God was there with me. He didn’t leave me alone, but was right there beside me the whole time. It was so cool to see how He gave my team opportunities to pray for the patients and families at the hospital.
God is at work here in Cambodia. I’m so blessed to be able to see firsthand what He is doing.
*name changed to protect privacy
