Johannesburg: Nursing Is A Calling, Not A Job...

I woke up feeling blue but felt better after praying and reading Psalms 138 and 139. I was physically weak and I decided then and there to take better care of myself, force myself to eat and rest more. I could not afford to be ill. Not at this time.

When I went in to see Kechi, I notice that her temperature was down but her face was bleeding in some places. It appeared that this was because of the cleaning of her facial burns. This bleeding was supposed to be a good sign. I remember the plastic surgeon saying that they would debride her face because they wanted it to bleed. I was quite sure he told me why, but at that point, for the life of me, I could not remember why Kechi's face bleeding was a good thing. I had trusted them thus far and resolved to continue to trust them.

The nurse on duty said that Kechi had had those breathing problems again the previous night. They had called in her doctor, who gave her a muscle relaxant which put her in an even deeper sleep so they could control her. Personally, I think Kechi was just fed up with the tube in her throat and wanted it out.

I sat by her and prayed until one of the nurses came to sit by me and encouraged me to hang in there. She said she had noticed that I was not looking my best that morning and told me to stay strong. I was very touched. One thing I noticed in Milpark Hospital was that all the staff, not just the nurses, were very empathetic. They genuinely cared about, not just their patients, but also the families. Here I saw that nursing is a calling, not just a job...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: Family Support Never Failed...

Lanre told me that Ulo was arranging to send me some more money through him. 

I was really so grateful to Ulo. With her I could go into detail about Kechi's condition that others could not handle at that time. Everyone was saying that I was so strong but the truth was that Ulo was the strong one because she always had just the right words to lift me up. For all I knew, she probably went to pieces after calling or texting me, but at those moments when I needed strength, she gave it to me through God's word. As anyone who knows Ulo is aware of, God has imbued her with uncommon wisdom and I drew from her when I needed it. I thanked God every day for her.

Betty's husband, Ike had just returned from Nigeria. He visited us in the hospital and came with letters and newspaper clippings from my family. When I got back to my room that night, I started to go through the letters from my sister Nkechi's kids for Kechi. I broke down crying as I read those letters because for the first time I was seeing the whole situation from their point of view. If Kechi had gone to be with Jesus last Saturday, those boys' lives would never have been the same because she was so close to those cousins of hers that at times it seemed that her spirit was connected to theirs. Bichu especially would have been devastated. They all wrote that they saw that there was a calling on Kechi's life and that they loved her very much.

My crying jag set the mood for the next few hours as I went through the newspaper cuttings Mom had enclosed. I was sinking into gloom and despair, looking at pictures of parents grieving. The last straw was seeing the pictures of some of the students, including my friend, Angela Ubah's son, Ifeanyi.

Mom and Nkechi called just then and I told them what I was doing and that I could no longer handle it. Mom immediately told me to pack them up and put them at the bottom of the box and forget all about them. They spoke with me until midnight, consoling me and encouraging me to remain strong. I told them to pray for a little girl, a baby, really, Erin, who had been brought into the ICU for burns. She was so little and it broke my heart to see her burns and hear her cry.

After the phone call, I felt better but still had a feeling of heaviness as I prayed for the hurting families.

I called the hospital before going to bed and was told that Kechi was stable...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: The First Breakthrough...

I had been sitting been sitting beside Kechi, reading some bible passages from Psalms to her when it seemed to me that I heard a gurgling sound from the respirator. Then it started to beep. I was alarmed and thought the machine was defective again. I ran out to get the sister, who had just stepped out, and she brought out a long tube connected to a machine and proceeded to suction Kechi's mouth and nose. Apparently, saliva and mucus sometimes filled the patient's mouth and nose and had to be suctioned off.

Then she said to Kechi, “Come on, darling, open your mouth”. AND KECHI MOVED HER MOUTH! I exclaimed, “Can she hear you?” “Oh yes”, replied the nurse. She asked Kechi again to open her mouth and Kechi moved her eyelids.

“No, darling, not your eyes”, the nurse laughed, “your mouth”. I could not believe it. All these days, Kechi had lain unmoving. It was very startling to see her respond to anyone.

“So……has she been hearing me all this while?” I asked the nurse. She said yes.

Then Kechi moved her mouth some more and sounds came from her throat. She was trying to speak!

The nurse calmed her down and explained to her she would not be able to speak because she had a tube down her throat. I also came round to the side of her bed and told her to calm down, and that I would sing for her. I started singing one of her favorite songs The Woodpecker's Song.

The second verse had always been a problem to me because I had somehow never been able to memorize it. Kechi always used to correct me when I got there. As I got to the second verse, she shook her head slightly and I said, “I know, I'm messing it up. Please bear with me, okay?” She actually shook her head! I almost lost it then, but I pulled myself together because I knew my crying would upset her.

I sang more songs to her until it was past visiting time. I was overwhelmed and needed to call my family and spread the news...

To Be Continued...

Johannesburg: Restoration Begins...

Since Kechi was going in for surgery on Sunday, I decided to go in early so I would see her before she got wheeled into the OR. I was pleased to see that she was stable and the fever of the previous day had subsided. Also, her mouth did not seem to be as swollen as before. 

I took this as a good sign and prayed over her before leaving the nurses to prepare her for surgery. These preparations were quite elaborate because Kechi had to be unhooked from about ten different machines and then hooked up to others that would take her into the OR.

When I peeked into her room at 11.30am, she had returned from surgery. I waited a while because it was also an elaborate process to hook her back on the different machines all around her bed. Although it was way past visiting time, I was allowed to have a quick visit and prayer before going back to the hotel to rest.

To Be Continued...