Tendo in the ICU!

We went by Mulago to visit Tendo this afternoon after finishing our clinic in Musanafu.  Tendo had her surgery yesterday to repair her left diaphragm.  This diaphragm had ruptured after she was run over by a car almost 2 years ago.  She has gradually developed more and more problems, due to her intestines and stomach being up in the left side of her chest. 

We were told that her surgery yesterday was a “success”.  I had a chance to talk with Dr. Tom, Tendo’s doctor, today.  It turns out that Tendo has Dextrocardia.  This is a condition that about 1 in 1,000 people have, where the heart is oriented to the right side of the chest and not to the left, as normal.  We knew that her heart was more to the right on her chest x-ray, but we thought that this was related to the hernia, pushing things to the wrong side.  This “surprise” complicated the surgery a little.  Dr. Tom also discovered that the hernia extended to the right side as well.  He was able to repair everything, but the change in operative procedure necessitated a larger incision.  The work on the right side ended up causing a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) on the right side, to go with the one that the surgery caused on the left side.  So now she has chest tubes on both sides and remains in the ICU.  Please continue to pray for her and her recovery.  This surgery was “elective”, but if she had not undergone the operation, she would have had gradually declining health over the next few years, and likely would have died.  It is just tough to see the girl that was dancing last week, laying in an ICU bed with chest tubes coming out of both sides of her chest.

We visited Raymond and Musunyi in Wentz Medical Center today.  They are the two boys that we brought back with us from Musanafu yesterday.  They are better than yesterday, but not ready to go home.  Musunyi has malaria and his hemoglobin (blood count) is around 9, and normal is above 12.  Raymond has pneumonia.  He has taken a special liking to Jill and lights up when she comes into the room.

God continues to put people in our paths that need something special, sometimes even small things.  We met a young girl, named Sarah, today.  She is 13 years old and has not started school yet this term, because she did not have the notebooks that she needed.  These add up to a grand total of 8,000 shillings. 

The pastor of the church that we were working in, says that she is very active in the youth group, youth choir, and is responsible to take care of things around the church.  We gave her this $3+, and took the opportunity to pray with her about her school year and walk with Christ.  Thank you for supporting us in so many ways, so that we can be in Uganda and find kids like Sarah, that need to see God’s love.

Until next time,

Jay