Bennett's Long Week
Well, I’m sitting in a hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa wanting to share about these last few days. As some of you know, we were airlifted out of Lusaka on Sunday night with Bennett who had been experiencing severe stomach cramping/nausea/dehydration for several days. We had been in and out of the clinic/hospital in Lusaka with Bennett since last Tuesday (with no improvement) and unfortunately reached the limit of care we could receive in Lusaka.
On Sunday afternoon, the Lusaka hospital was getting ready to discharge us when we were unexpectedly visited by a brand new friend, Abdi, a U.S. Somali physician whose last home prior to Lusaka was in Edina, just a couple miles from us. (For those of you from Minnesota, Abdi was the only Somali physician in the upper Midwest and played a huge role, in partnership with Park Nicollet, in improving healthcare access for Minnesota’s Somali population. He now works for the Gates Foundation here in Zambia.) Abdi examined Bennett and felt that he needed more care than we could get in Zambia. It wasn’t, he felt, a life threatening emergency, but it could turn into one so let’s get him out.
This set off a series of events that still seems a bit surreal. Our insurance provides for medical evacuation with physician approval, so, 5 hours after we made the call, we were picked up by ambulance, transported to an empty Lusaka international airport (it was 9:30 p.m.) where we were driven out onto the tarmac to await a jet ambulance from J’burg. (1 year ago I had stood on that same tarmac with 12 guys from Minnesota to catch a chartered flight to the Congo…This was all before we even had a clue we would be moving to Lusaka. So, a year later to be there with Molly and Bennett under the circumstances was a powerful reminder, at many levels, that we don’t know what next year, or tomorrow, or the next hour will bring.)
The jet arrived with both a paramedic and a Doctor -- two remarkable people that immediately raised Bennett’s level of care sitting on the tarmac. We had to wait an hour for the fuel guy to be woken up at his home and transported to the airport to refuel the jet…another unnecessary reminder that we are living in the developing world.
The jet took off and because we were denied airspace by the government of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugawbe (a medical mercy flight was a problem?) we took a detour over Botswana and down to S. Africa. We were met by another ambulance, quickly processed through customs and taken to one of the nicest hospitals I have ever been to where we arrived at 2:30 a.m.
So, the good news as I write on Tuesday afternoon is that Bennett is o.k. (and getting better) and several of the worst case scenarios that it could have been are not what we are dealing with…It appears instead that he has a severe case of viral gastrointitas (really bad stomach ache/bloating/cramps/distended bowels etc.) that, interestingly he could have picked up as easily in Des Moines as in Lusaka. (We also discovered in the x-rays done here that he is on the tail end of viral pneumonia which may have contributed to his body’s lack of resistance to this g.i. bug.) As of right now, he is doing better, but still is in severe pain when his stomach starts cramping. The doctors and nurses here have been wonderful and, it is still hard for me to believe that we are just 1.5 hours from Lusaka.
Here are several raw reflections from this event that are as much for me as they are for you…
- Seeing your kid suffer and not knowing what is wrong is about the worst thing in the world to deal with.
- I have rarely felt so grateful and, at the same time, so humbled/saddened as I was when the jet arrived to take us to J’burg. Grateful obviously for the fact that we could get our baby out and humbled by /saddened for the hundreds/thousands? of parents in Lusaka who at the very same moment were sitting up with their sick kid without even a chance to go the hospital we had been in, much less airlifted to first world medical care. I felt and feel like the privileged, spoiled westerner that I am.
- Community is everything. The support we have felt (and feel) both from home and from new friends in Lusaka has been life-giving and we have felt your prayers.
- The honeymoon of living in Zambia is officially over.
- I’m grateful to see the healthcare/SOS insurance system work. If there ever is a real emergency we now know who to call and how the process works etc. That feels good.
- Blessing in disguise - Through the excellent pediatric care that Bennett has received here, we discovered, and can now deal with, some sinus/allergy issues that would have gone undetected and unmanaged in Lusaka
- Molly is an amazing Wife and Mom and I have seen this in new ways this last week. To deal with something like this in the context we are in and only cuss a few times (and only once at me) is remarkable. Seriously, I have yet another level of respect for her…
- Katie Mooty has blessed our family in so many ways in her 3 months with us in Lusaka. Staying with the girls while we are in South Africa with Bennett wasn’t really a part of the plan for her last week with us. She has been incredible at loving all of us so well and taking care of things while we are gone. It is a perfect picture of who she is—total servant.
- As a friend here said, “Africa has a unique way of kicking your butt…” However one of the hard/best things about living in the developing world is that you “get to” use muscles that you did not know you have…with that comes new found strength that you did not know you could have. (Reminded of the verse in James about "persevering under trials...")
- As we’ve missed Minnesota these last 48 hours we’ve realized that this time in Africa is really like a fast. Just like a fast from food is intended to focus/purify us, so is this time here. Not always easy, but a very good thing to do…
Pray for us as we are still in the midst. Bennett is still not doing great, but seems to be rapidly improving. It looks like I am going to be able to go back on Thursday and we don’t yet know about Molly and Bennett. (I am going back to some of my busiest days here yet -immediately hosting 14 visitors from the U.S., a film crew, and a dinner with the Zambian First Lady Thursday evening.) Pray for the girls who are out of school this week and for Katie who is caring for them (and has been amazing.) They are right now at a friends for a barbeque celebrating Zambia Independence day (e.g. 4th of July) Finally, this event has happened at the 3 month mark of our arrival which, we are told, can typically be a time of really questioning your new context/missing home etc. Really? Pray that we can honestly process this event without going overboard so to speak.
p.s. Between writing this and posting it online, I reviewed our annual report summary of the project that I am privileged to be a part of…In the last 12 months we provided support to 200,363 orphans and vulnerable children across Zambia and home based care to 42,652 people living with AIDS and/or orphans. God knows I needed to see that right now to be reminded of why, in part, we are here. Be encouraged, as I am.
On Sunday afternoon, the Lusaka hospital was getting ready to discharge us when we were unexpectedly visited by a brand new friend, Abdi, a U.S. Somali physician whose last home prior to Lusaka was in Edina, just a couple miles from us. (For those of you from Minnesota, Abdi was the only Somali physician in the upper Midwest and played a huge role, in partnership with Park Nicollet, in improving healthcare access for Minnesota’s Somali population. He now works for the Gates Foundation here in Zambia.) Abdi examined Bennett and felt that he needed more care than we could get in Zambia. It wasn’t, he felt, a life threatening emergency, but it could turn into one so let’s get him out.
This set off a series of events that still seems a bit surreal. Our insurance provides for medical evacuation with physician approval, so, 5 hours after we made the call, we were picked up by ambulance, transported to an empty Lusaka international airport (it was 9:30 p.m.) where we were driven out onto the tarmac to await a jet ambulance from J’burg. (1 year ago I had stood on that same tarmac with 12 guys from Minnesota to catch a chartered flight to the Congo…This was all before we even had a clue we would be moving to Lusaka. So, a year later to be there with Molly and Bennett under the circumstances was a powerful reminder, at many levels, that we don’t know what next year, or tomorrow, or the next hour will bring.)
The jet arrived with both a paramedic and a Doctor -- two remarkable people that immediately raised Bennett’s level of care sitting on the tarmac. We had to wait an hour for the fuel guy to be woken up at his home and transported to the airport to refuel the jet…another unnecessary reminder that we are living in the developing world.
The jet took off and because we were denied airspace by the government of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugawbe (a medical mercy flight was a problem?) we took a detour over Botswana and down to S. Africa. We were met by another ambulance, quickly processed through customs and taken to one of the nicest hospitals I have ever been to where we arrived at 2:30 a.m.
So, the good news as I write on Tuesday afternoon is that Bennett is o.k. (and getting better) and several of the worst case scenarios that it could have been are not what we are dealing with…It appears instead that he has a severe case of viral gastrointitas (really bad stomach ache/bloating/cramps/distended bowels etc.) that, interestingly he could have picked up as easily in Des Moines as in Lusaka. (We also discovered in the x-rays done here that he is on the tail end of viral pneumonia which may have contributed to his body’s lack of resistance to this g.i. bug.) As of right now, he is doing better, but still is in severe pain when his stomach starts cramping. The doctors and nurses here have been wonderful and, it is still hard for me to believe that we are just 1.5 hours from Lusaka.
Here are several raw reflections from this event that are as much for me as they are for you…
- Seeing your kid suffer and not knowing what is wrong is about the worst thing in the world to deal with.
- I have rarely felt so grateful and, at the same time, so humbled/saddened as I was when the jet arrived to take us to J’burg. Grateful obviously for the fact that we could get our baby out and humbled by /saddened for the hundreds/thousands? of parents in Lusaka who at the very same moment were sitting up with their sick kid without even a chance to go the hospital we had been in, much less airlifted to first world medical care. I felt and feel like the privileged, spoiled westerner that I am.
- Community is everything. The support we have felt (and feel) both from home and from new friends in Lusaka has been life-giving and we have felt your prayers.
- The honeymoon of living in Zambia is officially over.
- I’m grateful to see the healthcare/SOS insurance system work. If there ever is a real emergency we now know who to call and how the process works etc. That feels good.
- Blessing in disguise - Through the excellent pediatric care that Bennett has received here, we discovered, and can now deal with, some sinus/allergy issues that would have gone undetected and unmanaged in Lusaka
- Molly is an amazing Wife and Mom and I have seen this in new ways this last week. To deal with something like this in the context we are in and only cuss a few times (and only once at me) is remarkable. Seriously, I have yet another level of respect for her…
- Katie Mooty has blessed our family in so many ways in her 3 months with us in Lusaka. Staying with the girls while we are in South Africa with Bennett wasn’t really a part of the plan for her last week with us. She has been incredible at loving all of us so well and taking care of things while we are gone. It is a perfect picture of who she is—total servant.
- As a friend here said, “Africa has a unique way of kicking your butt…” However one of the hard/best things about living in the developing world is that you “get to” use muscles that you did not know you have…with that comes new found strength that you did not know you could have. (Reminded of the verse in James about "persevering under trials...")
- As we’ve missed Minnesota these last 48 hours we’ve realized that this time in Africa is really like a fast. Just like a fast from food is intended to focus/purify us, so is this time here. Not always easy, but a very good thing to do…
Pray for us as we are still in the midst. Bennett is still not doing great, but seems to be rapidly improving. It looks like I am going to be able to go back on Thursday and we don’t yet know about Molly and Bennett. (I am going back to some of my busiest days here yet -immediately hosting 14 visitors from the U.S., a film crew, and a dinner with the Zambian First Lady Thursday evening.) Pray for the girls who are out of school this week and for Katie who is caring for them (and has been amazing.) They are right now at a friends for a barbeque celebrating Zambia Independence day (e.g. 4th of July) Finally, this event has happened at the 3 month mark of our arrival which, we are told, can typically be a time of really questioning your new context/missing home etc. Really? Pray that we can honestly process this event without going overboard so to speak.
p.s. Between writing this and posting it online, I reviewed our annual report summary of the project that I am privileged to be a part of…In the last 12 months we provided support to 200,363 orphans and vulnerable children across Zambia and home based care to 42,652 people living with AIDS and/or orphans. God knows I needed to see that right now to be reminded of why, in part, we are here. Be encouraged, as I am.
posted by The Dykstra Family at 9:33 AM
1 Comments:
We heard the news through Edina contacts and got your blog link via CPC. So glad to hear that Bennett is improving. Please know that you are all in our prayers!
Greg & Kathleen
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