There are times when I really struggle to see God at work in my workplace – especially in the life-and-death tragedies that I often encounter. Thankfully, there are also times when I really can see God working around me, and tonight, I believe, was such a time.
I was meant to finish my shift at 8:30pm tonight, but at 9:15pm (over 13 hours into my working day) I was still wandering around the wards trying to finish off all the jobs I had left to do.
One such task was to insert a new IV drip into a patient who was known to have very tricky veins. I quietly approached the patient’s bed and gently woke her up (partly out of good bedside manner, partly out of total exhaustion). After introducing myself and explaining what I was about to do, I proceeded to fail twice at inserting an IV cannula into the patient’s arm.
The lady, who was so incredibly kind and patient, bit hard onto her blanket to try and hide how painful the whole ordeal was for her.
Frustrated with myself, but determined to get a cannula in, I told the patient I’d try one last time before giving up. I knew this IV cannula was a really important part of her treatment, and that if I didn’t succeed on my last attempt it was highly unlikely anyone else would try again overnight.
Taking out a small blue cannula, I prepped the vein as best as I could and inserted the needle. No flashback. After manipulating the needle a bit more under the skin, it still wasn’t in. “Aw, no… no…” I kept thinking to myself. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw the patient praying quietly under her breath that the cannula in my hands would somehow work.
I doubted it. I’ve stuck over 200 of these cannulae into people and I generally know when no amount of further wiggling under the skin is gonna make any difference. Still, for some reason I pressed on, and even started praying in my head “God, please let this go in” whilst simultaneously thinking the situation was completely hopeless.
Then, suddenly, I saw a faint hint of blood (“flashback”) coming back through the needle. Bingo! 30 seconds later the cannula was sitting neatly inside the vein and secured firmly with a dressing.
I was amazed, to say the least. I mean, I didn’t actually believe God would help me salvage this situation – me, this lone F1 doctor, working overtime in a quiet little hospital ward late in the evening.
After telling the patient the cannula was in, I said to her “You were praying for me back there, weren’t you?”. She smiled sweetly, and said nothing. I responded “Well, so was I. I guess God really does answer prayer”.
I cleared my things up and left the patient to go back to sleep, quietly amazed by this little miracle God had performed before my eyes.
Posted on December 3rd, 2009 by B.J.
Filed under: Christianity, Medicine
