A Cheerful Heart is Good Medicine

Written on August 2, 2009

Proverbs 17: 22 ” A cheerful heart is good medicine . . .”

This week was just a busy, challenging, and emotionally straining as prior work weeks here. Yet, amidst my interacts with both sick and dying patients this week, who spoke Swahili, Kipsigis, and other tribal languages, I was able to communicate with them in a universal language for which I did not need a translator — love.

Something as simple as a smile or a kind word can bring healing. Often times, when I encounter patients or family of patients around the hospital and do not have anyone to translate for me, I just smile and find that it becomes contagious. In addition, when I’m rounding with interns and asking them questions to challenge their clinical knowledge and they do an excellent job, I tell them. Being in their shoes before, I know first hand how good it feels to have your superior/supervisor/attending to complement and/or encourage you. Interestingly, in bible study, when everyone was asked how their week was, one of the interns remarked on how nice it was to get positive feedback. That little bit of kindness cost me nothing, but was priceless to the recipient.

Thursday afternoon, soon after finishing lunch, I was paged by an intern to come to the bedside of a patient who had just died. This was an elderly lady who had been admitted to the hospital the previous night secondary to symptomatic severe anemia, but who also had developed acute onset of shortness of breath that morning before rounds. During rounds, upon seeing her, I knew that her prognosis was poor. She was in obvious respiratory distress and despite being given 10 liters of oxygen via a face mask, her oxygen saturation was in the 70s. There were no beds in the ICU and no available ventilators in the hospitals. I thoroughly examined her and reviewed her chest Xray. There was no evidence of pneumonia or tuberculosis. Her history and physical exam were most consistent with a pulmonary embolism, but there was no way to prove it without a CT scan or EKG. Unfortunately, the hospital pharmacy does not have lytics (medicine used to dissolve life threatening clots). All we could do was make her more comfortable. As we left her bedside to round on the next patient, I told my intern to call the chaplain as she didn’t not look like she was going to make it. Nonetheless, I was paged after lunch by another intern who was informed that my patient had died. I hurried to her bedside only to find her son, seemingly close in age to me, standing at the foot of her bed with an expression of unbelief. He was young. I couldn’t help but think that hat could have been my mother on the bed. Words escaped me. Anything I could have said, he might not have understood anyway. I looked at him and just gave him a hug. One of the interns soon came to the bedside and helped me to translate. I explained what I thought happened and led to his mother’s passing. More importantly, I let him know that I was praying for his strength and I that I was there for him. Though my time with him could not take away the pain of losing his mother, he was very grateful.

In the same way, I’m grateful for all of your encouragement and prayers. It means a lot  to know that you are proud of me. It means a lot to know that I have so many loved ones and friends supporting me. Thanks for all the emails.

I have to give a special shout-out to Brittney (my girlfriend for the few of you who may not know) who has stayed up late (given the 7 hour time difference) every night to talk to me on Skype and who never forgets to tell me how much she loves me and misses me.

I love you all. Remember Proverbs 17:22 as you begin another week.

Be blessed,

Darrell

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