Bern, September 9, 2014 [CD-EUDNews]. “That’s the way the devil works, by lying and deception!” with these words Dr. Richard Buchli introduced his appeal to pray for the doctors and staff at the Cooper Hospital of Monrovia, Liberia. They were deceived and provided CPR on a young woman and discovered later that she had EBOLA.
Here is the whole story as it happened.
Dr. James Appel is one of the doctors at the Cooper Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital. As usual, when the security guard calls for emergency, he walks outside, pulling on his gloves with a snap as he goes. There was a woman lying in the back seat of a beat-up yellow taxi with 5-6 family members crowded around all eager to tell what happened.
Dr. Appel looked in and saw a woman in very critical condition, she was semi-conscious and had a hard time breathing. Her head was held back on the seat by a female relative. She had malaria 10 days before and was treated with Artemether/Lumafantrine, a common three-day therapy. Four days before that, she had a miscarriage and bled heavily that evening.
The day before, she went into Benson Hospital where a doctor told her she needed an emergency D&C. The father paid 200 US dollars and they started the procedure. She then stopped bleeding. However, her breathing got worse and she started to fade in and out of consciousness. They were told by the doctor she needed a blood transfusion and that their lab couldn’t do it and had to go to Cooper SDA Hospital.
When the lady came, the doctor asked the typical screening questions about vomiting, fever, diarrhea, etc. and they all adamantly shook their heads, affirming ‘No, she doesn’t have any of that.’
As they lay her on the examining table, she started to have a seizure and stopped breathing. The family started screaming immediately and the Doctor pushed them away shouting “Let me do my job, will you?” He started doing CPR, calling for help from the nurses. There were deep purple bruises all along the patient's arms.
The Doctor called for oxygen. Habakuk, a nurse’s aide, started running an IV for the woman. The lab technician arrived and there were two new nurses as their shift changed. They finally got oxygen and she started breathing on her own and her pulse was back to normal. Two bags of blood were available and the first one was almost used up.
“Bring in a family member,” Dr. Appel asked a nurse. Just as the sister walked into the door the patient had a seizure again and stopped breathing. “Get her out of here!” he pointed to the sister and they resumed their efforts.
Finally, they succeeded in getting her breathing and her heartbeat was strong again.
Dr. Appel called the father in. He was overjoyed and thanked him profusely. “I am happy,” said Dr. Appel, “This is why we still do CPR, because sometimes it actually works.” They’ve been working on her for two hours.
The sister came back in and started talking. The doctor asked more questions. Suddenly, she began telling him how the patient started vomiting and having diarrhea and high fever at home.
Dr. Appel nervously looked at the patient's arms with the huge bruises, and then noticed all the IV puncture sites still oozing. “I looked at her bandage and saw oozing from where we gave her the shot. I went ballistic.” “What are you trying to do, get us all killed?” he screamed. “Lies, all lies! Why didn’t you tell us the truth.” The sister and father tried to give excuses, “We didn’t know, I wasn’t there, etc.” “You were all there when you denied the vomiting, diarrhea, and fever…don’t lie! It won’t help you or her! Take her out now!” screamed Dr. Appel again. He was sure she had Ebola!
The doctor started to freak out. He was exhausted and felt he had now put many staff members at risk. “If a staff member dies of Ebola, I’m responsible. For the first time I feel like I've been exposed to something very serious and my stomach is in knots.”
The patient died almost immediately after being carried out of the hospital doors. The father was kept out of the hospital, but came back to say, “You did your best. I’ll come back tomorrow to settle accounts.”
“I wanted to scream,” said the doctor, “Is that all you can say after lying and exposing us all to a deadly plague!” “I have trouble sleeping and have nightmares, I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding. I kneel down with my face to the floor and sob begging God for mercy, mostly for the staff but also to spare my life.”
“Jesus promised in Mark 16: 17-18 that his followers will not die even though they drink "something poisonous” remarked Dr. Buchli. “let us claim God’s promises and plead for mercy for the lives of these staff members. That’s their only chance!”