They Both Used Knives

The day began with Bob Goff leaving San Diego at 2:00 a.m. on his way to Cedars Sinai Hospital.  Bob had convinced nearly everyone involved to allow him to scrub up and assist with the operation, but alas, he couldn’t get past the hospital’s final line of defense – the lawyers.  Lawyers too often mess up the fun.  Unable to complete a last-minute reversal and get into the operating theater, Bob was there in the waiting room when I arrived at 7:30 a.m.  Bob had spent some time with the surgeon that morning and had presented him with a framed picture of Hero, the 9 year-old Ugandan boy on whom the surgeon was preparing to operate, hoping to at least partially reverse the damage done by a witch doctor now in jail for the rest of his life.  Bob and I caught up for a few minutes and then connected with Ted and Fayanna Worrell, the husband and wife with whom Hero is living while he is here in the United States.  They are volunteer host parents through Mending Kids International, a wonderful organization that, well, mends kids from around the world.  The Worrells had just left Hero with the operating staff and they reported that while he was a little nervous, he was quite brave.

The surgery started at around 8:00 a.m. and was scheduled to last for eight hours.  The plan was for the surgeon to use most of the skin and tissue (including blood vessels and a nerve) from Hero’s left forearm as the donor skin and tissue, and then to take a skin-only graft from his right thigh to be placed over the new void on his left arm.  We spoke with the Worrells for twenty minutes or so and then set out in search of some breakfast.  We fanned out at the coffee shop and worked separately until the early afternoon when we reconvened for lunch.  Bob and Ted each received a text message from the surgeon at the halfway point and he reported that all was going according to plan.  We were later joined by one of the coordinators for Mending Kids and we all waited and tried to work for the last couple of hours, checking the clock and wondering aloud regularly when the surgery might be over.  Finally, at 4:00 p.m., we left the coffee shop and returned to the waiting room.  About a half hour later, the doctor came out.

I will stop short of declaring that what the surgeon did with Hero today was a miracle because only God perform miracles.  I will say, however, that God worked powerfully through the surgeon to take a huge step toward restoring to Hero what the witch doctor took away from him.  As the surgeon explained to us what he had done and how he had done it, I was struck with the realization that he and the witch doctor had both used knives to accomplish their purposes — another reminder that so many things we encounter in our daily lives (including our words) can be used to destroy or to restore.

After another two hours of waiting, we finally got to see Hero.  At first he was asleep and had tubes down his throat.  Within a few minutes, however, he started coughing, so the nurses removed the tubes and let him breathe unencumbered.  We gathered closely around him and offered a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on him.  About ten minutes later, he started opening and closing his eyes for a few seconds at a time.  He had that faraway look that we all know and have seen in post-operative patients.

A few minutes later, he started focusing and responding to our encouragement and well wishes.  At one point, he said “I got this.  I have been cut with knives before and I have the strength to endure.  I was made by a God much bigger than you realize and I know he has plans for me.”  He didn’t say this with words, of course, but he communicated it in the way that many Ugandans, especially children, do.  I had been with Hero enough to see him do it about a dozen times – a barely perceptible nod (simultaneously jutting his chin slightly, raising his eyebrows just a hair, and tilting his head a couple degrees).  That was all we needed from him tonight – he came through it wonderfully and was able to let us know that he was OK.

We also learned from the surgeon today that he had been able to accomplish the whole thing in one shot such that unless there are complications, there will be no more surgeries.  This was an unexpected surprise for all of us and means that he will likely be able to return home to his mother within three months, rather than six.  He will be in the hospital for the next five days and has numerous checkups and tube removals ahead of him in the coming weeks, but our prayers have all been answered.  God is good.