Although I believe that every sunrise, every sunset, all of the moments that we have in life are miracles in and of themselves, it is still amazing to be in the middle of something that even the most cynical might consider to be miraculous. I was privileged to have that experience this past week, and I would like to give glory to God by sharing it with you.
In the South Sudanese village of Kirikwa, there resides an 8-year old boy by the name of Agele who (at least, whenever I have seen him) has always hung his head and/or covered his left eye with his hand or with the bill of his cap. This is because sometime around his third year of life, he started to have excessive swelling and itching of that eye. This led to much scratching and, it is believed, to a very severe infection of the eye and its surrounding tissues. Eventually redness and pain followed, as the eye deteriorated and became grotesque in its appearance. Although Agele’s pain eventually went away, he was left with an eye that few could bear to look at, and an attitude of fear of rejection. Although he had made trips to the hospitals of the Yei area, of Juba, and even the Democratic Republic of Congo, nobody seemed to know the cause of his severe problem or what to do to help him.
I saw Agele for the first time about 16 months ago, not long after we had arrived in South Sudan. I was so shocked at the severe disfigurement of his eye, that I felt that he must certainly have a life-threatening infection — as it was so close to his brain. His family told me that this was a problem that he had had for several years, and that hospitals and treatments had been completely unhelpful for him. They did not want to waste any more of their precious, little resources on useless trips and evaluations again. I did eventually get them to take him to the eye surgeon/ophthalmologist who comes about twice a year to Yei from Juba to do cataract surgeries. Apparently he was told something to the effect that, “he will grow out of it.” Well, thus far, it appeared that he would not. But, on the other hand, Agele seemed to be quite well, otherwise — attending the local church school, and playing like the other kids. Despite the grotesque appearance of the eye, it did not seem to be bothering him with any pain or physical discomfort. And, it did not seem to be getting any worse as the months and years had gone by. But the head-hanging continued.
We did take some pictures of Agele (with his family’s permission) and sent them to doctors we knew and specialists that they knew. Nobody was able to tell what the underlying problem was by just looking at him. It looked so bad, that we thought that he surely needed to have the eye removed (enucleation). But who of the non-specialists around here, would take such a drastic step without a diagnosis of what was really going on? Perhaps there was an unusual infection that needed to be treated first. Perhaps there was an underlying cancer that would need specialized treatment, as well. So, it became clear that we just had to get him to specialists who had the experience and the equipment to figure out what was going on, and what to do for him.
Thankfully, one of our visiting doctors from Tennessee gathered donations towards the care of patients with severe problems like Agele’s, and sent the money to us, so that we could help him. Several more weeks passed before I had time to accompany him, his father, and his uncle (one of our UMC pastors) to Kampala, Uganda for specialist evaluation at a hospital that had been recommended to me for specialized eye problems. The crowded night bus to Kampala was quite an experience for all of us, especially Agele. But with little sleep, we all took a taxi to the hospital on that Thursday morning. We were seen fairly promptly by the ophthalmologist, who was also surely amazed at the severe problem of this little boy. She quickly determined that he had no vision in the affected eye, but that the other eye had exceptionally good vision. She ran some blood tests, and recommended a CT scan of the head to make sure that there was no underlying problem causing this.
Getting the CT scan required going to another hospital. We went to schedule that early afternoon, and found that they could actually scan him right there and then. After the scan was complete, we were told to return the next morning to pick up the results. We did so, and the scan showed no major underlying problem. We took the results back to the ophthalmologist, who reviewed the results that Friday midday. She felt certain that Agele had had a severe infection in the past, but felt that the infection had “burned out” and was no longer an active infection that would require any treatment. She now fully believed that Agele’s problem was now a “cosmetic” one — although it was most severe. She recommended that we try to get in to see a plastic surgeon, before returning to South Sudan, so that the next trip could have Agele scheduled for his first plastic surgery when he returned. In light of the distance that we had to travel, and the expense of staying around Kampala, I asked her when he might get to see the surgeon. She said, “Today”.
Well, I was not expecting that answer on a Friday at noon. And we had to take a long taxi-ride to yet another hospital between Kampala and Entebbe. I was even more amazed that we could get in to be seen by the specialists by the end of the afternoon. They were a British plastic surgery group that did not charge for their surgical services. They thought that they could really help Agele’s appearance with a series of surgeries. They advised that the best cosmetic result would come with enucleation and the placement of a prosthesis (artificial eye). (The cost of Agele and his father staying there for three weeks was to be about one hundred dollars.) My jaw dropped when the surgeon said that they could put Agele on the surgical schedule for early the following week. I was even more astounded when I did some hurried calculations with our remaining donated money and found that there was enough to proceed with this surgery that we had not anticipated would happen on this particular trip.
All of this evaluation took place in less than 48 hours. This is something that one would not even be able to do in the US. Yet, here we were in a strange city, in another country, and God had accomplished this in front of us. We gave thanks for the faithfulness of our God once again, as I prepared to return to South Sudan —leaving Agele and his relatives to await the surgery and the few weeks of recovery to follow. I am glad to report that I have since heard that Agele came through this first surgery quite well.
Our God is all-powerful, and so faithful. I give praise unto Him for who He is and for the amazing things that He has done-- not only in the amazing case I just mentioned, but also in the everyday miracles that we all experience. All praise be unto His glorious Name! Lynn
