Horrendous

Susie is a pretty seasoned girl in the nursing world, so when I heard her use the word 'horrendous' I knew that things were pretty desperate.

Dar came to us from a provincial village on Monday. He is just 23 years old and together with his little wife he looked shy and very uncertain. Seven months ago he fell out of a tree and became paralysed from the waist down from the resulting back injury.

That was not the issue. For much of the last six months he has been sitting in a wheelchair, without feeling and seemingly oblivious to pressure sores that have turned into unimaginable gaping holes. Sue is not exaggerating when she says she could put her closed fist up to her wrist into two holes on his bottom. I watched a French surgeon wince and moan yesterday as she examined him. In addition Dar has many inner abcesses that have turned his stomach rock hard.

Waiting outside Sihanouk Hospital yesterday

Donnie took Dar to a clinic on Tuesday. They were quite hopeless and did not examine him at all. We tossed thru' Tuesday night and first thing Wednesday took him to 'Centre of Hope - Sihanouk Hospital'. Against all odds they agreed to taken him in - fully expecting him to be 3-5 months in a very, very valuable hospital bed.

Next step was to get 4-6 units of blood donated. Donnie got some church people together and we were taken by ambulance! across town to the blood donour set-up. Well ... that is the quick version - really, we waited, were interviewed, waited and waited, transport, waited ... stuff takes serious time. In the end they settled for three units of blood and I was number four in the line-up.

Susie and Donnie having all the fun

We were back today just as Dar was waking up from surgery part 1. His mum has come to be with him and his wife has (we understand) returned home (work commitments??) This will be the start of a long different road for us too, putting daily support structures into place for the long haul. Sue will take Phanna up tomorrow for what will likely become 2-3 days/week visiting, praying and encouraging for him. All prayer greatly received!