Browning here once again. Fortunately for you, this will be
the last time I blog for a while. I wanted to take the time to share with
friends and family some pictures and stories from my time in Kenya.
My girl and little man sending me off...
Myself and 2 other ER docs from my program (Scott and Chris)
spent two weeks working at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. Tenwek is
affiliated with Samaritan’s Purse. It is known as one the first missionary
hospitals in Africa and has served as a model for many others like it. The
motto on the entry sign and the hospital logo reads: “We Treat. Jesus Heals.”
This sums up the attitude that is found at Tenwek, and the mission that drives
the hospital and all of its employees. We came to serve in Jesus’ name…but I
can assure you we were ministered to and encouraged by the local medical students
and residents, the long-term missionaries, and even several patients. It is
hard to put into words the joy that the Kenyan people exuded.
Tenwek is also an academic hospital- with medical students,
residents, and long-term missionaries serving as faculty and administrators. It
was absolutely refreshing to be around residents that showed up to work with a
smile on their face, were excited and happy to be practicing medicine- knowing
it was a privilege to care for patients. I never heard one resident complain.
And it blew my mind to see how well the medicine and surgery teams worked
together. If you needed a surgery consult, the surgeon would be at the bedside
in 5 minutes with a smile. This was incredibly refreshing for me to be a part
of. The American culture of medicine is
one that is absolutely saturated by complaining. Everyone complain about long
hours, about patients, about their attendings (supervisors), about other
specialties. That culture simply did not exist at Tenwek. All specialties
worked as if they genuinely wanted what was best for the patient and were
willing to do whatever it took to accomplish that. I cannot help but know that
Jesus is the reason why. The one word that keeps coming to my mind when I think
about those people is JOY. They inspired me to have such an attitude- to be the
reason why my workplace feels different and to inspire other people to work
with purpose. It reminded me that my job is not simply a source of income…but
it is what God has led me to do and equipped me to do for His glory.
market outside the hospital
hills surrounding the hospital
hydro-plant: the power source of the hospital
classic Kenyan meal
We worked in the Casualty (their Emergency Room), as well as
took medicine call and covered inpatient wards and the ICU. We really enjoyed
taking care of patients…but also teaching their residents. It was definitely a “learn
and teach” experience. Their residents are much more comfortable with
interesting tropical diseases that we rarely get to see in the states, so we
had quite a bit to learn from them. On the other hand, Kenya (and the
developing world in general) is developing more and more of a Western lifestyle…thank
you McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and television. People eat worse, eat more, and are
becoming less active…sound familiar? As a result, Western diseases are becoming
more prevalent. We saw a ton of hypertension, diabetes, strokes, congestive
heart failure, etc.. These diseases are our bread and butter in the US, so we
were able to teach their residents and hopefully make a long-term impact on
patient care at Tenwek.
The ER team: me, Aaron (the long-term ER doc), Scott, Chris
one of our favorite patients
teaching a resident how to do a bedside ultrasound
I won’t go into too much detail about medical cases, mostly
because I don’t want to bore you to death, but I will just list a few really interesting
ones that people with a medical background may appreciate.
-14 month old girl in status epilepticus
-Patient with severe epiglottitis who had a respiratory
arrest- we coded, intubated, took care of in the ICU for a week, and discharged
him home.
-Patient with stage 4 esophageal cancer causing airway
obstruction- requiring intubation
-Echinococcus (hydatid cyst in lung)
-Extrapulmonary TB (tuberculosis)
-Hemorrhagic shock after table-saw injury to leg
-Organophosphate overdoses
-Rheumatic Heart Disease
-Tetrology of Fallot
The Casualty (Emergency Room)
inside the Casualty
men's inpatient ward
There is one patient in particular I would like to share a
little more about…not because we did anything heroic, but because we got to
witness God perform a miracle. It was our last day at Tenwek. Chris headed to
the Casualty a few minutes ahead of Scott and me. When I walked into the room,
Chris was doing a bedside ultrasound of a young woman, in her mid-20s. She had
just been transferred from a wheelchair into the bed. She was pale, lethargic,
and intermittently passing out while Chris was asking her questions. I put the
blood pressure cuff on her and the monitor read 50/20 (normal is 120/80). Her ultrasound showed a ton fluid in her
abdomen that shouldn’t be there. Then we saw a fetus in her abdomen. As we
looked further, we could see that the fetus was not in the uterus. This was
clearly a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. The embryo had implanted in the wrong
location making for an unviable pregnancy and a life-threatening condition. She was rapidly bleeding out into her abdomen.
We called for 2 units of code gray blood. We called OB Gyn, and they had her in
the Operating Room within 5 minutes. They removed 3 liters of blood from her
abdomen, while she received blood through her IV’s. Within a couple of hours,
Chris and I were in the recovery room, watching as she lie in a bed with normal
vital signs, having regained her color. God saved a life that day. But that’s
not the end of the story…
Before that day, this woman and her husband were destined
for eternal death. Through a Kipsigis translator, the good news of Jesus was
proclaimed to them. Like all of us, they were born into sin. We all sin and
fall short of the glory of God. And the
wages of this sin is death. BUT the free gift of God is eternal life. For all
who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. On August 22, 2014, this young
woman and her husband recognized that God loved them so much that He gave His
son to die the death that they deserved. And He rose, conquering sin and death and
offering this same resurrection to anyone who would turn from their sin and
turn to Jesus. How could they not accept this gift that God is offering-
eternal life! Praise God for His sovereignty. Only He can take a dying woman,
brought to a 7-bed casualty in rural Kenya, and change the course of eternity.
We felt incredibly blessed to have witnessed this miracle. I look forward to sharing
this story for many years to come.
During the long flight over the pond, I had plenty of time
to reflect on our time in Kenya, the people we met and learned from, and the
things God has taught me. I thought a
lot about the medical missionaries we served with, and how they are spending
their lives. They have spent decades educating themselves and becoming
specialized in a profession that people expect and anticipate generous monetary
compensation for their years of “sacrifice and hard work.” Many of them left
lucrative private practices to follow God where He was leading them. I was reminded that success in a believer’s
life is marked by obedience to Christ- not by how this world defines success.
“Do not lay
up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where
thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and
steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
-Matthew 6:19-21
Having a small window into the suffering that some of my
patients experienced, amidst extreme poverty and disease, your heart breaks a
little bit. And it makes you think about the bigger picture of the world that
we live in right now- which is marked by pain and suffering. We are living in a
day where the Ebola virus is spreading rampantly across West Africa, where planes
are falling out of the sky or going missing, where terrorism threatens even
young children, where death and disease are prevalent everywhere you go….where
will we find our hope? Fortunately we have an answer.
“Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-Romans 8:35-39
This is the hope that we cling to- the hope that gets us out
of bed in the morning, while we live in a world that is filled with pain and
suffering. This is the hope that we have to offer others. So to my patients
that we could offer few resources, there is still great news. While
the treatment of their condition is temporary, we can guarantee them the
condition of their soul. And amidst your pain and suffering, there is great
reason to have hope. There is a King who wants to welcome you into His family,
and nothing can separate you from His love.
Didn't do a safari...but still had some fun the day we left Nairobi
Thanks for reading! I appreciate your prayers and words of
encouragement while I was away. I hope you have somehow been encouraged by my
experience. Please continue to pray for Tenwek Hospital, the long-term
missionaries who are faithfully spending their lives in Kenya for the sake of
furthering God’s Kingdom, the medical students and residents who are training
there, and the patients who are being ministered to. And above all, ask that
God’s name would be exalted within the walls of Tenwek Hospital and around the world.
