9.30 am on Tuesday 18 November I was in the Doctors Changing Room in the Operating Theatre on my knees, praying. We were about to operate on a lady from Chad. She only speaks Arabic, so communication was mostly through her son who is a well-educated man and holds a very responsible job. She had been ill for over a year with pain in her right loin and passing blood in her urine. When I examined her there was an obvious large mass in her right loin and an ultrasound confirmed a large kidney with many cysts in it. After a few blood tests we did a kidney X ray which showed the right kidney was not functioning at all. It also showed us that the other kidney was working well. So there was only one thing really to do. Take the kidney out. But we have no surgeon here at present. The thought terrified me. Our two operating nurses, who are very skilled, assured me we could do it! But I couldn't stop thinking about the blood supply to the kidney which comes straight off the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body. With the kidney being so big, what if we didn't get the suture round this artery? What if, we pulled the kidney and it tore? Blood would flow out of her like a torrent and she would die on the table. I hated the thought! Anyway, she was anaemic and needed a blood transfusion. This delayed her operation. Then she started to run a fever. I did a test for malaria. It was positive! Great, this would need to be treated and so we could put the operation off till the next week! But by the time 17 November arrived, her anaemia had been corrected and her malaria cured. The time had come for the operation.
So, that morning at our daily devotions in the chapel I asked the staff for prayers for this operation. I never normally do that. Then alone, in the changing room I again asked the Lord to help us. Help us find the kidney and find the blood supply and tie it off without great blood loss. Especially, I prayed that she would not die on the table.
At 10 am the team in the operating theatre prayed and then we took the knife and cut down to the kidney. Now we could see it! We ran our fingers around it. It was large and irregular. I prayed. Bit by bit it was freed up and then, finding the artery to the kidney, this was tied off. Then the vein. Then the ureter. And then one of the nurses lifted the kidney out! There had been almost no bleeding! The patient was doing well under the anesthetic. And there on the instrument table lay this big ugly diseased kidney. I nearly cried. Post op she has made good progress and now is nearly ready to return home. God is so good! He hears our cry and answers our prayer.
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