Miracle!

This morning at 3am the phone rang. The Shona accents over the phone still throw me for a loop, but I caught the words "maternity ward," "bleeding," "can't find heart tones" and it was enough to set my heart racing and me racing down to the maternity ward. I arrived to find a young woman groaning in pain.

The report from the midwives was that she was 37 weeks along and someone had thought maybe she had twins. She was dilated to 3cm and had been having pain for about 10 hours. They had not been able to hear any heart tones for the baby. I asked for the small ultrasound locked in the c-section room and about 5 minutes later we found someone to open the door so we could get it. I struggled to get information from the 5-inch gritty black and white screen before me. Only one baby. Head down. And I saw lots of things that looked like mom's pulse, but not baby's. Then I caught a glimpse of something faster. A baby's heartbeat! I couldn't tell if baby was ok, but I had a strong feeling things were not ok. Mom wasn't bleeding a lot, but something seemed to be wrong. I checked her cervix and found that she was completely dilated. I believed that she needed to deliver now and the midwives encouraged her to push. This was her 5th baby. We broke her water and a few minutes later she pushed the baby out.

But my relief was over in a second. Baby and placenta came out together with a large clot attached to the placenta. She had abrupted (when the placenta breaks free of the uterus early and loses it's blood supply.) The baby was dead. The midwives sat it aside to deal with mom, but I was certain that I had glimpsed heart activity within the last 15-20 minutes, so I grabbed up the limp baby and carried him to the warming lamp. There was no pulse, no sign of life in the tiny body. I started doing chest compressions, pushing against the soft chest to push blood out of the heart and around the body. A nurse joined me and gave baby breaths with an oxygen mask and a bag. I began to pray, "Lord, please. Just give me this baby." "Please, Lord. Not another dead baby. Please, let him live." I just kept pressing on that tiny chest and praying. All around me the world was going crazy. Just behind me the midwives were working to deliver a breech baby whose head was caught. Across the room there were other patients in active labor. And still I kept pressing on that little chest. I could feel the tiny waves of blood pushing around with each compression, but no sign of life. The little body seemed so cold. I wrapped a blanket around his legs and moved the warming light closer. And then, 20 minutes after starting CPR, I felt something under my fingers. A tiny flutter. A heartbeat. We continued to breathe for the baby, squeezing the little bag of oxygen and I rubbed that little body dry and pink. Another 20 minutes passed and I prayed over and over again, "please, Lord, give me this little one back" and then the nurse held up a hand to stop me, pointing to the chest where it was now rising and falling with baby's own breaths. We kept the little boy under the warming light with oxygen and another 20 minutes later we were getting weak cries, almost squeaks, of protest and he was waving his little arms. The midwife who had delivered the baby and set him aside walked up to me and said, "baby responded well to resuscitation," and I thought "HECK YEAH!" "THANK YOU, LORD!" This morning, about 6 hours after his birth, I checked on the little man and he had started to suck and been trying to eat. He opened his eyes to my voice. I wonder whether he recognized it from those long minutes when I pumped his heart for him and told him to wake up, he had things to do. I am still completely overwhelmed, by the grace and mercy of this miracle. I feel like the Lord saved me when he saved this little one. It is by far the coolest thing in which I have ever played a part.

Some specific prayer requests:

1. We need rain here. This is supposed to be the rainy season, but rains have been sparse and the crops are suffering.

2. My boss, Dr. Todd, visited this week and will be heading back to Wichita in the next few days along with Dr. Leu, Dr. VinZant, and Todd's daughter, Sarah. Please pray for their safe travels.

3. Today, a 5 month old baby died suddenly and unexpectedly. Please pray for this family.

4. Pray for me that I will have endurance and represent Christ well in my work here.