Sunday, 12 June 2011

 

On Thursday, we decided to stay at ASELSI for a free lunch at the invitation of a team that had come. Just as I sat down to eat some fried chicken, one of the workers told me there was a medical emergency. I soon discovered that a three year old boy had gotten his foreskin caught in his zipper. I was quickly convinced that this does really happen. I used to think it was just a joke. Anyway, I had never seen this before so I called our missionary surgeon friend. He had had one case like this. He recommended numbing up the area and trying to lower the zipper. This is what we did. However, the zipper did not come down. We eventually cut off his pants worked on the zipper with several tools for a half hour but could not solve the problem. Therefore, we decided to send him to the surgeon. After several hours, the surgeon finished a big case and moved to resolve this little problem. With the help of some tools, he was able to rip the zipper apart and the problem was resolved. The lessons I learned for this case were "more and better placed local anesthesia" and "use more force."

 

Yesterday, we had one of the "weirdest" cases I think I have seen here. A young man came to the clinic in Canillá. He couldn't (or wouldn't) walk. I got the left shoulder, some others grabbed the right should and the legs and we carried him in. The story was that four years ago, he had had a fever and stopped walking. A month ago, he stopped talking. When I examined him, he had strength in his legs and arms. His throat muscles were working and he could write us what he wanted to say. So why wasn't he walking and talking? The reason his wife described through his signing and writing was that he felt an "itching" sensation in his abdomen when we tried to walk and he thought it would rip or something.

 

The main reason he came to us was to get an ultrasound to see what the problem was. Our ultrasound skills are limited but we did not see anything strange. I ran out of medical explanations and patience so I punted to the nurse. Besides it was her clinic anyway. She and a translator explored the spiritual issues that may better explain his symptoms. He denied going to any which doctors or and was unaware of any curses placed on him. He had had some issues with his wife in the past but they were now resolved. It turns out that shortly before he became unable to walk, his 1 year-old child had died. There really wasn't much else. I finished seeing some patients while they continued to minister to and pray for the man. When I was done, I went back to see if we needed to carry him back out of the clinic before I left. He was now talking and taking a lot bigger steps than he had been when he came in. He declared that God had healed him!

 

Was this a true divine physical healing? Was it a miraculous mental healing? Was it just the result of talking through some issues and dispelling some fears? I don't know but I am sure that God was involved and He received the glory.

 

Although this was one of the strangest cases we have seen, we often see people with obvious spiritual and mental issues mixed into their physical conditions. Many times, we have no idea what is really going on. Thankfully, God is not limited in any of these situations. But sometimes it is nice to see an obviously physical problem like a penis caught in a zipper.