32/46 of the daily Lenten blog…

Still got these two young men from yesterday on my mind.  I saw them this AM in the hospital.  Both were sober and solemn, but doing well.  In fact, I was able to discharge them home.  Their family was with them, mom, sister and youngest brother.

I appreciated how the Dad and youngest brother, in particular, attended to them.  I asked them to stay by their bedside through the night, to keep an extra eye on them (our nurses were quite inundated yesterday).  The oldest brother had sustained a concussion, and had some amnesia, which made the night challenging.  In the time that I was with him, he would ask me about every 39 seconds, “Hey doc, can I ask you a question?  Am I going to be alright?”  “Yes, Lucius (not his real name), you’re going to be fine.”  “Oh, ok doc, thanks.”  1,2,3,—–38, 39… “Uh, Hey doc.  Can I ask you a question…”  I think his younger brother achieved sainthood that night, as he patiently tended his brother.

I can’t help but hope that these two brothers may find redemption as prodigal sons.  They come from a family of faith in God.  I know it weighs heavily on the family to have their two oldest boys going down an apparent path of destruction.  When I see calamity, loss, or pain in a family’s life, I always wonder how God can use it and restore it.  I think the two accident victims were able to witness sweet care given to them by our staff, and by their own family.  I’m praying that gives them hope.

Ω

Speaking of Moto accidents.  Last week there was a different Moto accident that came in.  The accident occurred 8 months prior, and the young man, Buddy (not his real name) had gone to a well known hospital in Tegucigalpa (capital of Honduras).  They did an ORIF (where they open the leg, put the bones together, and secure it with pins on the outside of the skin).  His post surgery xray is below.

 

The bones appear to be back in place, although there is some weird pin placement.

Unfortunately, he says at some point things weren’t going well.  He says there was ‘damage’ to the skin, and they took him back to surgery.  Below is the post-operative x-ray.  Does anything seem out of place?  Something missing?

 

Yes, there’s a decent sized chunk of fairly important bone missing.  The problem is that the nature of bone isn’t to grow back and bridge that gap.  Oopsies…  This, my friends, is what many people would call a cluster-doodle.  Or something like that…

Buddy went back to the other hospital 5 times trying to get them to fix the leg.  They kept putting him off with various excuses.  I think I know why…

Our surgeons are left with the very difficult task of trying to redeem this dilemma, and get this fellow walking again.  It’s not so simple as just putting a place holder in there.  I know they are consulting orthopedic specialists back in the States, deciding upon the best course of action.

Photo of the Day:

I wish I was making this up…  This was my dinner tonight (see my post yesterday about barbecued ribs vs chick peas).  Loss of man points…

Got er’ done.