Mongolia 2013 Part 2 - Stories!

There really are so many stories to tell of the children and families that we met on this trip. There are Ayurzana, Tuya, and a little guy we called Batman, who all recovered from their surgeries beautifully. We also had Khulan, Oodma, as well as several other teenagers and young children who had holes in their heart closed through a cath procedure without ever having open heart surgery. Oodma and her mother received Christ before leaving the hospital the day after her procedure was complete, and were given bibles in Mongolian. One of the teenage boys is a professional dancer who travels throughout Asia and can now pursue that career without worrying about his heart. We also had a 22 year old woman, who should have never been operable into her adult years, and yet she was. She did extremely well and was walking the halls the next day. If I told them all nobody would read this because it would be too long, so I will highlight 3. It's not as long as it looks :), there are several pictures.

First I will introduce you to Davaadorj.

This little guy was first seen by our cardiologists back in July.  He had a heart defect that severely limited the blood flow to his lungs and put him at risk for sudden death. Although they didn't want to wait, they felt it was safer to put him on our schedule for September so that he would have the support of the full team if needed. His procedure itself also carried significant risk and the potential that he could be very unstable afterwords. When the team arrived we were told that he had been sick with a cold, and this would add even more risk to going under anesthesia for his procedure. It was already a huge miracle that he had lived from July until September. Our main anesthesiologist, Kim, formulated a plan to give him the best chance of coming through his procedure safely, and it was decided to go ahead. Without it, he had little chance of surviving much longer.
His mother would walk the halls every day and ask us to pray with her. His turn finally came on Wednesday evening, and the result was dramatic. He did amazingly well and his oxygen levels were up to 100% upon his return to the ICU (I believe they had previously been in the 60% range).

And now he is PINK!!!

We also got to take care of a patient who we were unaware of before we arrived. This is Nyamdawaa.

This guy is one tough dude. Most of the time, he had a huge smile on his face even though he was definitely not feeling well when we first met him. Unfortunately, what is wrong with his heart is not something that is easily treated. He had gone to another country a few weeks before we met him in hopes that they could buy him time with surgery. When we met him his heart had been in a very abnormal rhythm for several days, beating twice as fast as it should have been.  It became apparent that we would have to take more direct, and somewhat dramatic measures to restore his normal heart rhythm. After trying medications to reset his heart, we ended up having to use electrical shock. It's not at all what you see on TV, but there were definitely sighs of relief when his heart beat returned to normal and appeared to be staying that way. 

When he woke up he told us that it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of his chest. He very much still needs a miracle for his heart, but that intervention bought him time and quality of life, and we were grateful to be able to do that for him.

The last one I will share is about Emujin. When we began our week, we had no idea that our biggest challenge would turn out to be her case. Her heart defect ranks about a 1.5 on a scale of 1-10 for complexity. We know that anything having to do with the heart carries risk, but we never could have imagined what occurred. 

Her day started in the cath lab where she was to have a coil placed in a vessel that should have closed at birth, but didn't. The whole thing shouldn't have lasted more than a few hours. Everything seemed to go wrong from the start, from IV lines and getting her to sleep, to the coil migrating to where it wasn't supposed to be. Then it proved difficult to retrieve the coil and the decision was made to take her to the operating room to take the coil out that way and close the vessel. The complications were piling on, and although the procedure was ultimately successful to close the vessel in her heart, there was concern that something may have happened to her brain due to the many complications and extended time under anesthesia (over 12 hours). The team members who took care of her throughout the day will tell you they have never seen such a cluster of complications all together on one patient in one day. It was unreal. When it came time to see if she would wake up, there was a lot of praying, crying, and waiting. That first night in the ICU was pretty busy as we did everything we could to stabilize her and give her the best chance we could. As the hours progressed we knew that there was nothing medically for us to do that would fix what had happened. We made her comfortable. She needed a miracle. We prayed for a miracle. And in the meantime, we held her, loved on her, spent time with her, and prayed some more. She passed away about 24 hours after the team left. We have watched God do amazing miracles, both overseas and at home. I don't know why sometimes we still have to see kids die. 

Some may think it strange, but I had so much peace during those 2 days that we took care of Emujin. I knew God was with us. I know He is good. I know He is in control. He never leaves us. In the chaos and in the stillness, He was right there.

To wrap this up, I just want to love on my team. Heart surgery is challenging no matter what country you are in. There are not people I trust more on the planet than this team that I am so privileged to travel with. The stress level on these trips can be astronomical, and the fact that we all still love each other when it's over is a testament to God's grace and mercy. Through all of the triumphs and challenges we faced this year, I would do it all over again.

Our team of ICU nurses
(will add team pic as soon as I can)

Click here to see more pics, and/or go to previous blog posting for slideshow.