One of the most amazing experiences this week was an interaction I had with a Canadian family in the Neuro ICU. This couple was in Puerto Rico for their second honeymoon. During their stay, the husband started complaining of a severe headache, and while his wife went to get him pain reliever, he began vomiting and lost consciousness. He was rushed to the hospital here at the university and was admitted with a subdural hemorrhage (an arterial bleed in the brain). The nurses pointed the family out to me, because the family only spoke English, and no one had been able to really communicate with them, so I went into their room...more like a roped off corner of a wide open space filled with sick patients and families and wildly beeping machines. I walked over and met the man's daughter and son. Since the accident, his children had flown down to be with him and their mother. I talked with his son and daughter, who both looked to be in their early 30’s. As soon as I explained who I was and what my purpose at the hospital was, they opened up. It was like releasing a floodgate, a deluge of every kind of emotion came pouring out. They expressed how difficult it has been because they can’t speak any Spanish, and how it was difficult to entrust their father’s life to this foreign healthcare system. When I asked them how it was going, they said they were thoroughly impressed with the care their father had received, but admitted they had their doubts and had to overcome a lot of fear and cultural barriers. The talked about environmental and cultural factors they had to deal with, which they had never given any thought to. Their main concern was driving in a foreign place, where there seem to be no traffic laws at all. The daughter said her main concern was reaching her father, but that driving in San Juan was a major obstacle they had to overcome. (This was something we were able to bond with...because i tend to close my eyes and pray whenever we are in a car here.) It was amazing to sit and be able to talk with this family, who had experienced culture shock, on top of a family tragedy. As therapeutic as it was for them, I benefitted from the time with this family as well. I simply could not imagine going through this experience alone in a different country. They were able to confide in me and vent in their own language to someone who understood them, and could provide support. I was so thankful for the opportunity for God to use me, though I walked into the situation rather blindly. I continue to be amazed at the works of our Father. Surely His hand has been on me this entire trip, and I am fulfilling His purpose for my life while I am here.
I am not my own.
“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”- Ecclesiastes 11:5
