Another Life Saved

At 9 pm last night Dr. Aboiyar called and said there was an 18 month old boy who had probably aspirated a bean and was in respiratory distress. He needed to go to the operating room as soon as possible. I happened to be coming home from picking up Emily and I was driving by the pediatric ward just as I was talking to him. I stopped the car and sent Emily home with the car.
The boy was in the intensive care unit and struggling to breathe. His chest collapsed with every effort to inhale. He was clearly getting tired. Two days prior to this, he was at his grandmothers’ home in Lantana, a four hour drive away. He coughed and had difficulty that night, but they waited to take the boy to Jos on the next day. He was initially admitted and observed in another hospital here in town. He was not improving, so they recommended that he be evaluated at Evangel Hospital, recognizing that we had the necessary equipment to manage airway problems. Thus he arrived 48 hours after choking on what was presumed to be a bean.
Dr. Aboiyar and I quickly set up the operating room and broke out the very specialized scopes, which were supplied by Dr. Joel Anthis when he was here 2003-2006. With careful coaching of our anesthetist, we were able to get the child asleep and get a good look. Something like a fishbone was lodged between the vocal cords. The vocal cords were now red and swollen. The voice box was starting to get infected by the foreign body that was lodged there. The airway was truly in jeopardy.
Dr. Aboiyar was able to deftly remove the barbed fish spine and then visualize the windpipe and make sure there was no other fishbones lodged deeper in the airway. After removing the fishbone, the child was breathing slightly better, though he still had to struggle with a swollen airway. In the US, we would have left a breathing tube in place overnight, but our pediatric intensive care unit at Evangel cannot take care of intubated patients. We simply gave him oxygen, antibiotics, and medication to relieve the swelling.
By this morning our patient, whose name is “Godswill”, was breathing comfortably. It was clear that it was God’s will that the parents have a young boy. It was also apparent that it was God’s will that Godswill survived this life-threatening event. We pray that Godswill will live up to his name and go on to do great things for God.
It has been a good day. We don’t often get to see such dramatic events in our specialty. It is a special bonus when I can see such immediate results. It is especially pleasing to me to know that we have equipped a Nigerian doctor to make a such a great difference in this community.

Godswill is bathed by his grandmother in front of his bed in the pediatric intensive care unit.


Left to right: Dr. Aboiyar, father, Godswill, mother, grandmother, me
Michael Mitchell, MD