Possessed

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Last night Phillip got called back to the OR for a c-section. Apparently Dr. Tom had to call him three times to wake him up. I felt bad but I guess Dr. Tom could tell by how I fell asleep on Judy’s couch after dinner that I was very tired. They told me that they were in surgery until 3:30am. I did not even hear the generator turn on.

Needless to say, it was a slow day because of it. I’m happy to say that everyone in the women’s ward is doing well under my watch this week. I did have a strange case come in on Monday. She’d had an exploratory laprotomy (open abdominal surgery) for primary infertility at the beginning of the month and she presented to the hospital at post-operative day #20 with restlessness, insomnia, headache and altered mental status. When I went to see her she was moaning and flailing around with a blank stare in her eyes, but complaining of nothing more than a headache. I prescribed her medications for pain and something to help her sleep while I waited on her laboratory studies. When I went back to check on her yesterday I was informed that she began having seizures during the night. On exam, she was not actively seizing, but she was foaming at the mouth and very incoherent. Her speech was muffled and broken and she could not maintain eye contact. Her eyes kept rolling back in her head and then she’d open them wide and stare into space. It was very bizarre bit she did have a pain response to flexion of her neck so I started her on antibiotics for encephalitis (a brain infection that could be caused from malaria or some other type of infection).

As I was leaving her room, I passed Pastor Jarr on the way out. I said hello and she greeted me as she entered to see the lady.

I found out from Judy today that Pastor Jarr spent some time with the lady praying for healing. Apparently it worked, because today when I went to check on her eshe was sitting up and talking- completely oriented! She knew her name and where she was and could answer any question I asked.

As Judy informed me, Pastor Jarr seemed to think that the lady had been cursed and was possessed by an evil spirit. When I told Emily this story today, she agreed saying that there is definitely an evil presence here and that many of the people greatly fear it. I’m not sure what I believe in this specific case, but I don’t think that just a few doses of an antibiotic can heal someone that quickly. I also think that you can’t believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit if you don’t believe in the presence of evil. I also think that if you believe in anything enough, then it does become real to you.

Either way I’m just grateful she is on the road to healing now, whether it be physical or spiritual.