Angelina Update

Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, June 12th.
(Last pre-surgery photo!) 

What a whirlwind the past few days have been! Many times over the past days Katie and I have commented about how surreal this experience is and continues to be. A week and a half ago we met Angelina, one week ago we decided to go to Kumasi to get an assessment, and today we visited her in the ward to see how her recovery from a life changing surgery is going. 

Yesterday we arrived at the hospital before 6:30am, ready to see the doctor for his 7am visit, and have Angelina brought in for surgery not long after. Instead, around 8am we were brought to the operating theatre with Angelina and her mom, and 3 other cleft babies and their mothers. There we joined several others waiting for surgery. The nurse called everyone's names and checked them off on a sheet, but did not call Angelina. When the nurse looked up and saw her there she got angry, asked for her name, and told Angelina and her mother to leave. "They can't do her surgery today, they'll never finish by 4:00" she said. We were met by silence.

Katie and I grabbed her files, and rushed across the hospital campus, to the cleft clinic. The doctors aren't in they told us, so we should wait. And just then Dr. Henry, the same doctor that rescued the day before when the nurse told us to leave the hospital, walked in. He personally escorted us back to the operating theatre, spoke to the staff, and started detailed records for everyone. "The surgery is going ahead." he assured us.

After he left the staff informed us Angelina was still missing an aneosthesiology assessment, and the doctor responsible for assessments would not be in that day. Another of Angelina's surgeons showed up, and put in a phone call, and another doctor came in early to make her assessment.

And then we settled in for a long wait. All of the mothers and children were seated in a  small room, with metal benches. As we sat in the waiting room we watched each mother surrender her child to the nurses, and then watched again as each mother got the call to meet the ambulance and travel with her child back to the hospital ward. And finally, just after 3, after Angelina had fasted for nearly 23 hours (all of the babies were refused food after 6pm the day before because of a nurse's misunderstanding) she was taken back to the recovery room and given an IV to rehydrate her before surgery. And around 3:30pm she was finally taken into surgery.

Would you believe it that the doctor that took Angelina back for surgery was a native Buli speaker? From a native speaker population of less than 10 000 people, to find a native speaker in Kumasi, and have him serve as her nurse, was simply a divine appointment.

The wait while Angelina was in surgery was much harder than the hours of wait before the surgery - and I know I experience only a fragment of what our mother was experiencing. I sat across from her for a while, as her eyes stayed glued to the door the surgeons would come through to tell us the surgery was done, as she wiped her eyes and pretended not be upset, and wrung her hands. And I sat beside her for a while, wanting to offer comfort and knowing there was nothing I could say, other than to tell her Angelina was in good hands. I asked the translator to remind her about all the babies we saw yesterday who were back for their follow-up visits, and about how perfect their little smiles were. Angelina would be okay, we said. Her mother listened and nodded, and continued to watch the door.

By 5:20pm Angelina was out of surgery and her mother was taken back to the recovery room with her. Before 6pm Katie and I met Angelina and her mother on the road, as her mom carried her back to the hospital ward. We could sense the mother's relief the moment we saw her, and through the translator she told us how happy she was now. Angelina's mouth, although swollen, looks beautiful. Her lips meet and align perfectly, where there was a gap before there is now jaw, and where there were teeth coming her lip before there is just lip. And for a little girl that spends most of her time laughing, I think there's nothing better in the world than to have a complete smile. 

We visited Angelina several times today, and she and her mother are doing well. This morning Angelina was sleeping peacefully, and this afternoon she was sitting in bed, playing with her mom, laughing. She has some recovery to do still, but her big surgery is done. She may be released from the hospital as early as tomorrow, in which case we would start the trek home on Sunday.

Thank you again for your support in making this possible.

~Until the next update