Adopting Abraham

There is a program called Adopt-A-Patient here on the m/v Africa Mercy. Crew members can volunteer to ‘adopt’ a patient for the duration of their stay here. It is then their role to intentionally spend time with the patient, to listen, and to love on them. On Wednesday I had my first opportunity to adopt a patient, Abraham. (Abraham isn’t his real name, but the one that I’ll use to protect his rights and his identity as I write online.)

Abraham arrived on Thursday afternoon with his sister so that he would be ready for his operation on Friday. He is seven years old, has attentive eyes and a contagious smile. He is gentle, a good sharer, and can play with cars for hours (more on this later.) He is lively and fun! He also has feet that have formed abnormally. But, I want to be clear that this is about Abraham in his entirety (his mind, his heart, his personality, his soul, his body, and all of the other important things that make up a person) who has clubbed feet. This is not the child who has clubbed feet (as his identity) who happens to be named Abraham- an essential distinction.

His feet are turned inward at about a 75 degree angle. They are pigeon toed. To use your hands as a visual, hold your arms and hands straight out, as if you were falling and were going to catch yourself. Rotate your hands so that your fingers are facing each other. If your hands were his feet, they would first be rotated like this. Then roll your hands so that your palms face you. His feet are also turned this way. Imagine walking on the area between your wrist and your knuckle by your little finger. This is how Abraham walks. It can be done, but it is challenging. His feet could have been operated on six and a half years ago… But then again it is better to be fixed now, than in another six and a half years. Also, if it would have been caught earlier, it would have been much easier to treat. On a different note, my feet used to be pigeon toed when I was smaller as well, until I was placed in shoes that pointed my feet in the right direction. As a result of this early treatment, my feet work quite fine right now. (I bet you never knew this smidgen of Scott history.)

I met Abraham on Thursday in the evening after I was done working. I called the nurse on duty in the ward to make sure it was ok, and then headed over. I arrived in a room with about eight kids, four mothers, a few translators, and a few nurses. Some of the children were confined to their beds following their operations while a couple others were playing on the floor unhindered. There were even a few toddlers (siblings) romping about. A few balloons made of latex gloves freely floated about (those nurses!) among two handfuls of toy cars, and colorful building blocks. In this environment I met Abraham and his older sister. He was shy at first. (I sure would be if I were going to have an operation the next day, was surrounded by white people for the first time in my life, was on a ship of all things, that is relatively freezing cold from the air conditioning, that doesn’t have any windows in the hospital, and that makes funny noises.) We played a little bit before I had to leave and go to our community meeting.

The next morning we played for a joyous three hours together before his surgery. We constructed a tower, played with a slinky for the first time ever, but mostly played with cars. I was also excited to play with new Hot Wheels cars for long periods of time! I did find it fascinating that according to Abraham, cars here go ‘beep beep beep’ where as when I was little cars went ‘vroom’. But then again, the taxis here don’t go ‘vroom’ because they go so relatively slow, but they do go ‘beep beep beep’ all day long. We had a lot of fun. After our time together, we were laughing, talking back and forth, and connecting. It also was a great way to keep his mind off of the operation. When the time did come, we picked up our cars and it was time to operate on his left foot. But instead of saying goodbye, I said “see you in a few minutes” because not only is Abraham my adopted patient, but he is also the one surgery that I have the privilege of observing while I am here.

Clothed in my scrubs, shoe booties, surgical hat and facemask, I was reunited with Abraham before he entered the operating theatre. We prayed together with Abraham, his sister, and the nurses for safety and for the doctors. Soon after, Abraham was deep asleep and I watched intently for the next three hours.

Observing surgery

Surgery is amazing- the way that we can put someone into such a deep sleep, breathe for them, take away the pain, and cut things and sew them back up so that they can heal properly. The two orthopaedic surgeons were so skilled! They used tools that looked even more intimidating than dentists’ to do the job. Throughout the operation I asked Abi questions, lots of them. She is a medical doctor who is training to be a surgeon who was also observing the surgery. She taught me so much! When it was all finished, Abraham’s Achilles tendon was lengthened, some bone pieces were taken away from the over-extended side and were then grafted onto the other side to make the foot straight again. Then, two pins and some sutures were put in, guarded by a boy-blue cast to hold everything together so that the foot can heal properly. A day later, Abraham has a sore foot, but a straight one! He is in a cast right now, but when it comes off in a few months, he will have a close to normal, healing foot! And finally, when the healing process is over for the left foot, he will visit the Africa Mercy next year in Sierra Leone to have his other foot operated on!

Some of the tools used

I am in awe of how well the medical staff works together. I am in awe of the precise equipment they use. I am in awe of how they can use this teamwork and equipment with their training to heal my little friend. This will allow a seven year old the chance to fit in again and to move more freely. I watched an ‘ordinary’ miracle in the operating room!

Abraham and I played with cars again tonight. He wasn’t quite as perky, but still laughed and smiled as we rolled the cars around his bed, constructed another tower out of all the blocks, and then drove the cars around the tower and each other. He is a special, brave little guy.