Answered Prayer

About a month or two ago my mom received an email from a missionary in Ecuador that is/was a member of their church before they left for the mission field. He is a physician and doing medical missions in Ecuador. Here is the original email we received:

“Marjori Silva died in my arms on the way to the provincial (regional) hospital today. Please pray for me and for the family.

She presented in severe respiratory distress with a mild fever and without drooling or barky cough. Aggressive nebulization treatments (using the machine I bought and the meds I brought) made no difference, and as I was filling out the transfer papers to send her to the regional center where they have intubation and resuscitation equipment, she abruptly stopped breathing and was not able to be ventilated by mouth to mouth. I did CPR all the way to the provincial center and helped as best I could once we arrived, but by then it was too late. Visualization of the epiglottis and upper airway at the regional center showed that she did not have epiglottitis, diphtheria, or other discernible cause of upper airway obstruction, at least to the level of the vocal cords. We removed a 7-inch Ascaris worm from her throat during intubation at the regional hospital, but I believe that guy was just trying to escape given the trauma of her asphyxia and the CPR process. We’re trying to persuade the family to allow the autopsy to give us some answers.

I had never seen her before, but a postmortem chart review shows many episodes of “bronchitis” and a previous referral to the regional hospital by a pedi resident for an asthma crisis about a year ago.

Our “hospital” where I work is not equipped for emergencies and makes no claim to provide emergency services. I did what I could given our limitations of equipment and personnel, but of course it is still pretty devastating. I’ve never lost a child to respiratory failure before. If any of you have an old laryngoscope lying around or know someone who is upgrading their equipment, let me know immediately because I will certainly be buying my own laryngoscope and endotracheal tubes. I am very competent at intubation but did not have the equipment I needed to save her, and that situation can not be allowed to happen again.”

After I read that email I felt like i had to do something and I remembered that we have an extra bronchoscope at work…it’s not in the best shape and we were going to throw it away so we just kept it and played around with it. This is what could have saved this little girls life. So I asked and they said I could send it to Ecuador and he could have it. I also went to our operating room and got a bunch of endotracheal tubes and other intubation equipment that I was able to send to him.

I just received this email from him saying they got all the equipment, along with a lot of other stuff that many other people sent to him. Our God is good, many people helped and now more lives can be saved because we took the time to help our brother in Christ out. Here is the last email I received:

“Dear all:
Thanks so very much for the amazing array of great items you sent to us here in Loja. The Lord is amazing and He works thru His people. Not only did we receive a laryngoscope and bronchoscope, nebulizer machines, resuscitation medications, nebulizer meds, an amazing assortment of ENT surgical specialty equipment and supplies, endotracheal tubes, and additional medical equipment (which all got here in one piece due to the remarkable packing care of my mom and sisters putting virtually everything in bubble wrap), but also some great personal items like General Foods International Coffees and Starbucks syrup for coffee/latte flavoring, chocolate, etc. We also received some language learning software and pediatric CME materials we’d hoped would come to them in time to bring along. So we feel richly blessed and I know the Lord will see that these items are put to use in His service (and for our refreshment/encouragement as well).

Thank you for caring and for your gracious generosity.”