Tenwek Day #2 (1:00 am): Roger

Yesterday was an extremely challenging day to say the least, yet I'm so thankful to be back home in Kenya immersed in everything Tenwek.  My roommate Luke and I got back to our room this morning around 2:30 am.  We were both working together on the same team that was caring for our second case of the day.  That patient's name is Roger.  It appears we were a good match for roommates since we're both keeping the same hours.  By the time we got ready for bed and I had posted my last blog message for the day it was around 3:30 am.

Luke had to get up 3.5 hours after we go back to our room for the first case of our second day at Tenwek, but I did not so I got to sleep in... all the way to 10:30.  I'm definitely on Kenyan time now.  When I was getting ready to go back to the OR this morning, Luke came back to the room to tell me he had some bad news... the surgeries for the day had been postponed... there was an incident several hours after we transported our patient Roger to the ICU where he became unstable.  Even with the help of all of our medical staff he was not able to be resuscitated.

There are so many things that go into the care and recovery of these critically ill patients anywhere they are treated.  There is even more to consider when a team like ours is brought on location.  No one could provide more compassion and care to our Kenyan patients than our team and the Tenwek medical staff here in Bomet.  Our entire team was devastated by the news this morning and the cases for the day were initially postponed.  Early this afternoon, it was decided to proceed with another open heart patient.  Our cardiologists are continuing to evaluate patients daily and there are more patients that need surgery than we can provide services for so we must continue on.

The other 2 perfusionists were taking care of our patient in surgery today as I continued to inventory and organize our supplies in one of the back storage rooms off of surgery.  Not my favorite part of our trips, but an essential one.  All of our supplies are stored away during the year between our trips and brought out of storage for our cardiac weeks.  Ann, one of our nurses, was evaluating patients and taking verbal histories from them in the storage room I was working in - no small task if you don't speak Swahili.  I was enjoying their interactions and listening to their histories as I worked around them.

Later in the afternoon well after Ann had seen her last patient, she came back into the storage room to tell me that Dr. White's wife was on her way to Roger's funeral and was trying to let the cardiac staff know in case anyone wanted to attend.  After spending most of the preceding day in the operating room caring for Roger I really wanted to attend to get some closure and perspective on the patient we worked so hard on the prior day.

I hurriedly thanked Ann for letting me know and ran into the ICU to see if I could find Dr. White's wife.  They said she had just been in there, but thought she had gone back to the guest house... so I ran into surgery to ask the other perfusionists if they were OK with me going to the funeral, gathered my camera and briefcase and took off for the guest house.  As I left the hospital, I happened to see Dr. White's wife go around the corner of the hospital and I ran after her asking if it would be OK for me to attend the funeral.  She immediately smiled at me and said the family would love it if I could attend and said there was plenty of room for me.  When we walked around the corner of the hospital, the cars were pulling out of the parking lot and we jumped into the last of 3 cars.

On the way to the funeral I had so many questions... where was the funeral going to be... did Roger have any family there since he was from the Congo?  It was almost dark, why was the funeral being held so late and what would it be like?  I was reminded to buckle my seatbelt because of the treacherous road (where are we going anyway?) or in case we were stopped by the police en route.  The first vehicle in our caravan was an ambulance carrying Roger.  As we drove into Bomet, the local town where Tenwek Hospital is located we continued on through the town and out into the country down dirt roads, and turned into a field stopping behind the other vehicles.

We could see the grave that had been dug with the pile of dirt beside it.  It was in a field, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  As the other attendees gathered around the grave site I helped the other men carry Rogers casket to the graveside.  This was the first time I'd ever done anything like this and was so moved that I was able to take part in a ceremony like this for one of my patients.  The casket was made of rough pine with 2 handles on each side.  As we lifted the casket from the ambulance I was surprised to see the lid was not fastened closed. 

There were about 10 people present at the funeral, including 2 close personal friends of Roger.  None of Rogers family were able to attend the funeral because of the distance and the expense.  Roger was married with 4 girls, the oldest is 14 y/o.  By the time the casket was placed at the graveside it was around 8 pm and it was getting dark.  The Pastor started speaking about his brief interactions with Roger the day before when they met at the hospital. He was from the Congo and had travelled to Kenya for his surgery with 2 of his friends.  The Pastor said that he was trying to encourage Roger the day before, but Roger had instead encouraged him.  He was a man of God and a believer.  The Pastor read a passage from Genesis and prayed for Roger and his family.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

 After the brief ceremony by the Pastor, we all paused while one of the men nailed the lid of the coffin shut.  It was a very poignant and profound moment for me.  So final.  Then I helped the other men loop a rope through the handles on the front of the casket and another on the back of the casket and about 6 of us lowered the casket into the grave.  As we all stood by 2 of the men covered the casket with the mound of dirt that lay beside the graveside and placed branches in the fresh dirt directly over the casket.  Immediately afterwards we all stood over the graveside in a circle holding hands as the Director for World Medical Missions said a final prayer for Roger in Roger's native language; French.

 

It was a beautiful ceremony, something I never thought I would ever experience, but grateful I could be a part of.  As I helped one of Roger's friend Heather back through the field on our way to the cars she told me how Roger was a nurse and had studied in a specialized field.  He worked with Heather and her friend (who were from Canada) supporting their non-profit organization Water Ambassadors of Canada (http://www.waterambassadorscanada.org/) to help provide clean water to the children and people of the Congo where he was from.  She also told me he had 4 daughters.  He and his wife could not afford to have their 4 children live with them so the children were living with his mother.   His wife was going to school to get a better job to bring the family together.  Heather said he lived a 4 hour bike ride or an 8 hour walk away from his children.  That comment told me volumes about who Roger was.  Heather said he had been sick with his heart disease for 20 years before he had the opportunity to have surgery this week at Tenwek and they were able to spend 4 days together with him before his surgery.

Please pray for Roger and his family as well as the patients we will be operating on over the next 2 weeks that the Lord will watch over them and their families and keep them safe and give us the guidance and strength we need during our time at Tenwek Hospital.

Roger's friends asked that I take photos at the graveside and I videotaped some of the ceremony for Roger's friends.  I'm hoping that his wife and children will eventually be able to see it as well since they couldn't be present for the service.  I've attached one of the video's that I took and hope that you can hear the words spoken by the Pastor.

It's 1:30 am and I need to get to bed so I can be in the OR at 6:30 in the morning, so I can't preview the video. 

Thanks for following along everyone...  Please remember Roger and his family in your prayers...