I was just outside our gate getting some Christmas gifts out of our storage container when I heard Theron racing down our drive way urgently saying on the phone, “I don’t know where you are!  You have to tell me where you are!”

I was immediately concerned as I seldom here my husband raise his voice.  He then went on to say, “Richard, I need to talk to Will, can he talk?  Will where are you?  The airstrip? Okay.”

Theron quickly informed me that Will (our American teammate)  and Richard (one of our Uganda co-workers) were in an accident near the Mbarara airstrip and that he needed to go right now.  We knew was that Will and Richard were both able to talk and that Will was bleeding – nothing else.  Theron called Andrew (our other teammate) who lives two houses away to come pick him up and he then went to the clinic room to get some emergency medical supplies.

Theron gave me his phone which had the numbers for Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in case we needed to fly someone elsewhere.  A few moments later Andrew was here and they were off in a cloud of dust.

I went inside, gathered the kids, and we began to pray.

Theron and Andrew were at the accident in a few minutes.  When they arrived they found Richard’s car upside down off the road in a field.  Will was lying on the ground outside the car and Richard was holding a bloody cloth onto the side of Will’s face.

Theron and Andrew immediately began to assess the situation.  Richard had a lot of bangs and minor cuts but appeared to be okay.  Will was in a lot of pain and was bleeding in several locations and was complaining of his back hurting.  He was able to move his fingers and toes which was a good sign.  As Theron was caring for Will,  a truck of Ugandan policemen drove up.  One of the police approached Theron and Andrew and said, pointing to Will,  “There has been an accident we need to get this one to the hospital.”  Andrew said,  “No we need to keep him here so we can see if his back is hurt.”  The policeman replied “I am a policeman, we need to get these ones to a hospital.”  Andrew then replied “That one is a Doctor and he says we don’t want to move him yet.”  Andrew and his 6’2” frame won the argument and he and Theron continued to work to assess and stabilize Will.

As Theron and Andrew were taking care of Will, he asked them, “How are the kids?  Where are they?”  At this point none of us knew that their had been other people in the accident.

As it turns out, one of our friends, Savious, had sent her 3 kids in the car with Will and Richard as they were going to the village where Savious’ mother lived.  All of our hearts sank when we heard these kids had been in the car.  Savious lost her husband a few years ago when her youngest child was just 2 months old.

For several hours we didn’t know what condition her children were in.  All we knew was that a passing motorist saw the accident, picked up the kids and took them to the local hospital.  We pleaded with God for this widow to now be spared her three children.  We were also reminded back to how God had spared Savious’ own life and that of her son when she was in the hospital bleeding with undiagnosed placenta previa.  We pleaded for God to again spare lives.

At some point during this I was able to talk to Theron and he said he wanted to get Will to Kampala so that he could get x-rays and CT scans of his head, neck, back and shoulder.  Since the car ride to Kampala is at least four hours over some very bad, dangerous roads filled with construction and potholes, I  got on the phone with MAF to try to arrange for a plane to come get Will and Theron.  Understandably, MAF needed some substantial promise of payment before they would send the plane.  After, pledging my first-born as collateral, the plane was on its way.  The plane arrived ninety minutes later and Theron accompanied Will to Kampala.

Once there an ambulance met them at the airport to take them to the hospital.  The traffic is notoriously awful in Kampala.  The ambulance driver conquered Kampala traffic like the guys had never seen before.  In fact I’m half tempted to pay the $100 cost of the ambulance the next time we are stuck in Kampala traffic.

Once in Kampala, Theron and Will went back and forth between a few different hospitals and clinics to get all the scans and x-rays Will needed.  Andrew joined them later that night as he had left for Kampala by car once the plane left Mbarara.

We praise God that while Will certainly looked like he had just had a car land on his face he only sustained a broken scapula, some bruises, lacerations to his face and back and a dislocated shoulder.  Incidentally, as Will was traveling over the notoriously pothole-filled roads of Kampala, he hit a few bumps which fixed his dislocated shoulder.  Blessings come in expected ways.

After one night in the hospital and one night in a nice, airconditioned hotel in Kampala the guys were able to make the journey back to Mbarara very slowly by car.  We were so happy to have all of the guys back in Mbarara for Christmas Eve.

Of the nine people in the car, Will had the worst injuries.  We thank everyone for their prayers during this time and we are so grateful to God who spared our friends from this potentially serious accident.

Things were a bit more hectic around here than usual around Christmas and New Year, so please accept our very Belated Christmas and New Year wishes from our family to yours!

Theron had an “interesting” medical case a few weeks back.  I use the word “interesting” but pretty gross is more accurate in my non-medical opinion.  One day Goretti, the wonderful lady who helps us around the house (more on her in another post to come), asked me if “Doctor” (as people often call Theron, since his name in almost impossible for a native Runyankole speaker to pronounce as they have no /th/ sound and there is no distinction between the /r/ and the /l/ that we are used to in English in Runyankole, we have gotten many letters addressed to Dr. Shalon or Sharon Huttone and some people are confused why Doctor and his wife have the same name as Theron and Sarah sound very similar to their ears when we say them with our American accents) was going to be around later.  I told her that he would be around after 5.  She then went on to tell me about her nephew’s son out in the village who had a “rotting head.”  She said that he had gone to a small clinic near his home and had been given some tablets and herbs but those hadn’t seemed to help.   I encouraged her to tell them to come to town and that Doctor would be happy to see them.  She called her nephew on her cell phone (ah the beauty of modern technology, cell phones and internet connection throughout Africa).

Later that day the Nephew and his son arrived.  He was a cute little guy wearing a stocking cap.  The nephew had helped to host us when we had visited Goretti’s village before so we were glad to get a chance to return the hospitality.  My kids did a great job of trying to include the boy in what they were doing and he really enjoyed swinging on our swings.  When it started to rain they came in and the kids watched a children’s movie.

Theron got held up by some other responsibilities and was late getting home.  When he got home he took the boys hat off to check out his “rotting head.”  I have never seen anything like it before.  His entire head where there would normally be hair was covered in oozy yellow or grey pus.  I am not one prone to exaggeration so when I say his head was covered in pus it literally was.  At this point Theron was tired and it was late, so we asked Goretti if the nephew and son could stay with her and come back in the morning when Theron would have more time to look at the fellow.  Goretti was happy to have them so they went on their way.

Early the next morning the nephew and son were back.  Theron donned some latex gloves, removed the boy’s hat and started scrubbing his head with a surgical scrub brush.  The boy was very stoic and brave and was a very good patient.  After the head scrubbing the boy was sent back to Goretti’s house with some strong antibiotics and vitamins.  Theron asked if they boy could stay in town for a few days and come back for us to check on how his head was before they spent money on transport to go back to their village.  We were happy when the boy came back a few days later and his head was remarkably better.  The father was very happy to see that his son’s head was no longer “rotting.”

I don’t have a picture to share with you.  It seemed a bit insensitive to say  ”hey little fella can I take a picture of your “rotting” head to put on my blog for all my friends and supporters to see” but he is a cute one even when his head was covered in pus.

We prayed for a baby to come into Joseph’s family and shortly after this new life began to be knit together in Diana’s womb.  In a culture that doesn’t talk about pregnancy for fear that people can curse your baby, Joseph publicly proclaimed God’s goodness in answering his family’s prayers and publicly announced that he and his wife were expecting.  Months passed and Diana “produced” a baby boy in a small health clinic near their village.  Things seemed to be going well.  However, when the baby was about a week old (and Theron was out of the country) I got a call from Joseph that his baby was in the hospital with pneumonia and a congenital heart defect.  I was able to visit them at the hospital shortly afterwards.  Typically here, patients are told practically nothing from Medical personnel.  So when I got to the hospital there were no nurses or doctors around to talk.  I was curious how the diagnosis of congenital heart defect was made and what they thought the best course of treatment would be for the baby.  I looked at the chart but wasn’t able to decipher much (Joseph had given me the chart to look at as there are no strict confidentiality laws here). When a man on the medical staff came by I politely asked if he could give me some information on my friend’s baby as I wanted to help this friend get the best care for his baby possible.  The man began to berate me for asking questions about the baby.  He demanded to know if I was a medical person and if not why was I asking medical questions.  I’ve been here long enough to know how to deal with this.  So I put on my smile and said “Forgive me sir, I am so sorry, but I want to help my friend with his baby and you are the expert, you are the one who knows the answers so I thought I would ask you.  Thank you so much for your work here and for helping my friend.”  Call in flattery, call it whatever, it can get the job done.  The man, who I later found out was head of nursing, then explained that the diagnosis of congenital heart defect had been made by a resident making rounds and that the attending had not yet seen the baby to confirm the diagnosis.  Well to make a long story short, Joseph’s baby stayed in the hospital on oxygen for several days and then went home after a week stay.  It appears that the baby does not have a heart problem and we thank God that the baby has not been sick since leaving the hospital.