Amen

Today I walked onto D ward to find I was assigned to take care of baby Hubert in the ICU. We have him there because we don't know if he has an infectious disease. Afterall, we have no idea what exactly he has. The best guess is measles. If a baby is born in a village, they go without any childhood immunizations unless the parents bring them to the hospital. With his deformities, our best estimate is that his parents didn't put any efforts into his care 9 months ago when he was brought into this world.
All day I worked to collect samples, place tubes, manage pumps, procure orders, and keep Hubert's high temperatures at bay by covering him with cool towels. His mama wouldn't lift her head, never showed expression of any sort.
"We have to check Hubert for HIV, we need your consent."
She just nodded and signed.

Everything came back fine. All of the blood, the samples, all of it. We were no closer to an answer than yesterday, and we were all frustrated. Hubert was failing and we had no answers. As I was getting ready to leave there was talk about intubating, an effort to avoid having to do it emergently if his body decided it was too tired to keep compensating. I talked to the mother, I asked her if she was afraid. She had started looking at Hubert differently. She was responding to his cries, helping me with his care. She replied she had peace, she was not fearful. As I put my hands on her in prayer, with Hubert pulling for each breath in her lap, I couldn't help but cry.

Please God, if it is your will we need your divine healing. Let no stronghold have power in this family, in this room. He is your child. You hold him in the palm of your hand. You know what the plan is for him. Give him rest.

I felt the physical representation of all of you praying for him. I left, promising to check back in tonight.
As I walked in to the ICU tonight, Ali greeted me with a smile and a "go look". My heart leaped as my eyes went straight to the tiny baby. His chest wasn't retracting as much, his eyes were closed in rest. The monitor dispayed numbers that had improved. His little sister was talking away to her 'yovo' baby doll. As I looked at the mama I saw a big smile, something I have never seen in the 6 weeks I have been on the ward. I felt the all too familiar lump rise in my throat.
There is a peace in the ICU right now. There is light where before there was a deep darkness. My soul sang with delight. Hubert has a long way to go, but my goodness, how far this situation has come. I felt it earlier in my shift when I heard his mom singing in English. "Great things he has done, greater things he will do. Unto God be the glory. Great things he has done"
Tonight, as I smiled and watched her smile back I said;
"Mama, praise God. To God be the glory"
and she quietly replied,
"Amen"