Sunday, September 26, 2004
STANDING ON THE BRINK...MARCH 1980
Major’s Smith and Hopkins came to the waiting area looking tired and grim. I knew they didn’t like the news they had to bring but there are no detours from the harsh realities of life. They were soldiers as well as doctors….they were used to bad news.
I was told they had amputated the leg because the leg was dead. The only way they could save him was to get the leg off, clean the “stump” (the term used for amputations at the hospital) and slash his abdomen for drainage. They made a vertical cut above the amputation and used Betadine to disinfect as much of the muscle tissue as possible. The only hope they had was that whatever got into the abdomen could be controlled by not closing up the stump. The surgeons were grateful that the full thrust of the infection went down into his leg instead of to the abdomen.
They had spared nothing for his survival hopes. The Colonel stayed with the surgical team because of the high risk surgery. The odds against Warren’s survival were great but the fact he had overall good health and a profound faith put a little more punch in his favor. I told them they were trying to save a good man and I knew God’s decision in the matter would see us through….one way or the other. I wanted them to know that Becky and I, our families and our church were holding the medics up in prayer as well as Warren. They were grateful for that and said they had prayed as well….they knew God was guiding them all the way.
The young medics in the ICU were busy for some time hooking him up to all of the machines again. He was getting 16,000,000 units of penicillin during a 24-hour period and to keep from burning the kidneys up they had to flush his system with fluids to offset it. Once he was hooked up and on the respirator the doctor told us we could go in. Warren was unconscious but when the doctor raised the sheet for me to see I wasn’t repulsed at all. I had accepted the amputation before it happened because it was the only way to save him. There were no options.
Because of the late hour, one of the nurses told Becky and me we could sleep in the room nearby as there were no patients in there and we would be close in case there was an emergency during the night. We were very grateful and went right to bed. The last thing we heard as we fell asleep was the respirator’s measured whoosh that put breath into Warren while he slept. I knew he would not know until morning that the leg was gone and I knew he may not wake in the morning…..so I put it all in God’s mercy and fell asleep.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
I was told they had amputated the leg because the leg was dead. The only way they could save him was to get the leg off, clean the “stump” (the term used for amputations at the hospital) and slash his abdomen for drainage. They made a vertical cut above the amputation and used Betadine to disinfect as much of the muscle tissue as possible. The only hope they had was that whatever got into the abdomen could be controlled by not closing up the stump. The surgeons were grateful that the full thrust of the infection went down into his leg instead of to the abdomen.
They had spared nothing for his survival hopes. The Colonel stayed with the surgical team because of the high risk surgery. The odds against Warren’s survival were great but the fact he had overall good health and a profound faith put a little more punch in his favor. I told them they were trying to save a good man and I knew God’s decision in the matter would see us through….one way or the other. I wanted them to know that Becky and I, our families and our church were holding the medics up in prayer as well as Warren. They were grateful for that and said they had prayed as well….they knew God was guiding them all the way.
The young medics in the ICU were busy for some time hooking him up to all of the machines again. He was getting 16,000,000 units of penicillin during a 24-hour period and to keep from burning the kidneys up they had to flush his system with fluids to offset it. Once he was hooked up and on the respirator the doctor told us we could go in. Warren was unconscious but when the doctor raised the sheet for me to see I wasn’t repulsed at all. I had accepted the amputation before it happened because it was the only way to save him. There were no options.
Because of the late hour, one of the nurses told Becky and me we could sleep in the room nearby as there were no patients in there and we would be close in case there was an emergency during the night. We were very grateful and went right to bed. The last thing we heard as we fell asleep was the respirator’s measured whoosh that put breath into Warren while he slept. I knew he would not know until morning that the leg was gone and I knew he may not wake in the morning…..so I put it all in God’s mercy and fell asleep.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
