7/6/98: Today I spent several hours in the OR with Dr. B. taking pictures of surgery…
NOTE: I am reluctant to post any of the photos I took in the surgical unit at AIC Kijabe Hospital due to privacy concerns. The free stock photo above is by Olga Kononeko at Unsplash.
7/6/23: I witnessed two major surgeries that day. One was a bone reconstruction surgery on the left foot of a young child who suffered from TEV. This was one of several surgeries required to re-shape and rebuild bones in the child’s left foot that had been malformed during gestation due to poor nutrition in the mother’s diet. The surgeons at AIC Kijabe Hospital make it possible for children like this to walk and function more normally, so that they are not limited in their opportunities as they grow up.
The other case was an infant with a a congenital birth defect called myelomeningocele. Also related to poor nutritional health of the mother during gestation, in this case, the vertebrae of the spine do not form properly. This baby had a hole, or opening, in one of the vertebrae that allowed the membrane around the spinal cord to balloon outward far enough that there was a 500ml cyst-like sac of spinal fluid on the baby’s lower back. There was no MRI facility at the hospital in 1998. This meant that Dr. B. had to drain the fluid, open the sac and explore by sight and feel to determine if any nerves, or even the spinal cord itself, was also outside of the body cavity and inside the sac. It was harrowing and delicate work, but it went off without a hitch. Dr. B. was able to remove the entire cyst/sac, suture the spinal membrane, and seal the hole in the bone safely.
Dr. B. prayed before he began each procedure, entrusting his own work in the hands of the Great Healer. He asked God to guide his hands, to give the physicians wisdom through each step of the procedures, and to protect their patients. In the surgeries that I photographed that day, I witnessed God’s resounding “Yes!” in answer to those prayers!