Dealing with Childhood Injuries in Honduras

Hmmm, at 18, I guess Russell doesn't really count as a child anymore, but he got injured while playing soccer, so I think the categorization is fair.



Sunday, at around noon, while playing goalie, Russell was hit in his chest and the lower right side of his torso by the feet/legs/knees of another player. It was a hard hit, and Russell was in too much pain to get to his feet for most of an hour. Although his friends and teammates offered to take him to the hospital, he declined, and sat in the shade until he had gotten his breath back. Eventually, he managed to get himself into the truck and drove himself home from the soccer stadium.

He was in severe pain, and we were concerned about the possibility of internal injuries and bleeding. His skin wasn't broken, and he didn't even bruise up from this hit, but from the amount of pain he was experiencing, we were concerned about broken ribs and damage to his liver.

Our big problem in a situation like this, as you may have already guessed from some of my other medical posts in this blog, is that the medical care here is so far below standard that frequently the hospital misses the diagnosis or the visit actually causes additional damage. We have little faith in the ability of the local hospital to diagnose and treat our son.

One local doctor, who is also a friend of ours, has been a reliable resource to us in the past, but he was out of town on Sunday. We discussed the options of taking Russell to the city of Santa Rosa de Copan (45 minutes from here), and also whether we needed to take him all the way to San Pedro Sula (around 3 hours from here).

Meanwhile, we were rounding up prayer supporters and medical advisers from the internet. And, we were monitoring his blood pressure, pulse, and respiration. These would show signs of possible internal bleeding or a ruptured lung. Lovely. Please realize, we didn't see any signs of these complications - we just knew that we needed to watch out for them.

Happily, we can report that his vital signs remained good. However, he continued to have significant pain, and in the evening he had blood in his urine. Not good stuff, for sure, but here, where the medical care is so very poor, and slightly better care is a long drive away, this was still not quite enough to make the decision to head anywhere for tests a given.

Our friend Dr Julio was due to return to town Monday morning, so he said he would come to the house to examine Russell as soon as he could when he got back. He arrived early in the afternoon, and he said that he couldn't be sure, but he thought Russell might have fractured a rib. He also said he felt the situation warranted a trip to the city, for a sonogram and X-ray. Both of these are available in a city 45 minutes from here.

So, Allen and Russell headed there, with Bethany and Rachel coming along for the ride. Dr Julio was sending them to a private practice place (these tend to be better than the hospitals) for the tests, but unfortunately, when they arrived, they discovered that they were closed for a holiday which we didn't realize was on the calendar for that day (this happens to us a lot).

So, they headed over to the hospital, which has an x-ray machine, though no sonogram machine. At least their drive wouldn't be an entire waste, if they got the x-ray. However, the x-ray technician had just left the hospital. They were told that he would be called right back in. After waiting about an hour, Russell got his x-ray.

When the family arrived home, they explained that the results of the x-ray were inconclusive. There is a line on a rib which might be a fracture, but the doctor couldn't be sure. So, at least we know that there is no severe damage to Russell's ribs.

(Hmmm, how bad can he really feel, if he's able to ham it up for the camera this much?)

We still don't know about possible organ damage, but it has now been almost 48 hours since the original injury, and he continues to steadily improve. He has not had any additional problems with blood in his urine, and he is eating and drinking normally. He does still has significant pain.

It would seem that God has allowed us to we have another 'almost (but not quite) horrible' situation here. We have been blessed with incredibly good health and amazingly few injuries in our years living in remote areas of Honduras, and that is remarkable! Our choice to live where we do and as we do is all about faith, but some days we are reminded of that more than others!