March 3, 2008
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Snake Bite
I want to tell you about Enelia….one of our “grannies” at the orphanage. She is a dear, sweet, hard-working old woman who gives her love and energy to the children at the orphanage. She always has a warm Tonga greeting and a big smile. If I had to imagine the joy of the Lord…she would be my example. She also loves to dance (kuzyana in Tonga) which if you know me warms my heart to her even more. Well my story begins over a month ago when Enelia came to the clinic with a problem with her right foot. With help with translation, she told us she had been bit by a snake a few days before…..clearly it was not a mamba. Upon inspection, we found her second toe on the right foot to be black with necrotic tissue. In the middle of the toe was an open area obviously infected. You see, the bite had been a few days prior and Enelia doesn’t wear shoes most of the time. She lives off the farm and to get to work she has to cross the Maramba River…..you get my drift? Who knows what she has had her foot in! Further assessment showed the blackened color (hard to see past her black skin) to be all the way up past her ankle….Clearly she was in danger of losing not only her toe, but her entire foot. Well, the first thing we did was pray over her foot. God was definitely going to have to intervene here. A foot soak was then given with Betadine solution for about 10 minutes as we attempted to clean the entire area removing all the necrotic tissue as gently as possible from the toe. It was very painful to touch. Next we cleaned the open area with saline and applied triple antibiotic ointment and dressed it with tegaderm and telfa dressings and gauze wrap securing it over the ankle to hold it in place on this very active bush woman. Now how were we to keep it dry and clean when she walked without shoes. Trying to figure out something, I went to the medical supply cabinet and found one cast boot way up on the top shelf (Yeah…I used a chair! J). That cast boot was the only one we had and it “just happened” to fit perfectly!!. We also gave her two injections of Penicillin. Well for the next month Enelia came every 2-3 days for prayer, foot soaks, dressing changes, Penicillin shots and oral antibiotics. She worked at the orphanage with that big ol’ cast boot on…..it went through the river and mud and who knows what else. The dressing was always filthy on the outside when she came in for her reviews……but I am happy to report that her foot and toe are now completely healed!!!! No more black….no more infection….no more cast boot or dressings….no more pain. Last time I saw her hanging clothes in the orphanage yard, she started dancing for me and shouted “hallelujah.” Thank you God for another miracle healing!
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