Ruth Evans

No not mine! But right now, I wish it was me that had died instead of the staff member I was taking care of! I think I had written to some of you telling that I was taking care of some very sick staff members. This young, 39yr. old gal (She just had her B-day on Mon!and some of you will know her - Ruth Evans), had been sick for about a week with malaria and a viral-like flu symptoms! She had a high fever and I took her to the Dr. on Tues, here at Kijabe and she was started on malaria medicine, which she found hard to keep down and we had to give her a second dose. She began vomitting more and more each day, and yesterday I took her to the Dr. again, as a viral type rash had appeared all over her body! Her fever seemed to be coming down, so he thot it would just take a few more days. All day yesterday she vomitted, and I gave her 2 shots of Phenergan IM. By 5pm, I was worried and again, called the Dr. on call, who said, to just keep trying to get her to take fluids by mouth, slowly. By 10pm she was delerious, and I again, called the Dr. and told him I was bringing her to the Kijabe Hospital so that we could start her on IV's. He reluctantly agreed, thinking she could wait till morning. Garry had to help me almost carry her to the car. We got her admitted and an IV was started, and they decided to give her hi doses of Quinine per IV. During the night she was very restless and moaning with each breath. I stayed with her all night. Her fever kept going up in the night, and she could not keep down any oral things, and they had no tylenol suppositories, so I began cold sponging her, which made her very angry with me. I called the Dr. again at about 1:30am, but he thot that anything new could wait till morning. By 5:30am, I noticed she was not responding to my questions except in a mumble jumble that I could not understand. She kept up her moaning and then by 6am, seemed not to know who I was, nor was she able to respond coherently at all. She did not obey verbal commands! The Dr's started their rounds at about 7am, and I mentioned the fact that she had progressively gotten worse to 3 of them, but they were not the ones seeing her, so I waited rather impatiently for the right Dr to see her. He came in about 7:45am, examined her, and again he could tell she was not responding appropriately. He left to find an Internist, who was an infection control Dr. and returned just min. later, unable to find him, but while we stood there, she began to seizure. We turned her, and she seemed to come around a bit. He went out of the room to call another Dr. and I went out to make a call to see if the RVA Infirmary had any tylenol suppositories. I heard her begin to scream and returned quickly as did the Dr. and she began to seizure again. This time, after her seizure she quit breathing! O2, and an Ambu bag were quickly brought and the Dr's brought the drugs needed to recesitate her, but after 40 min. of trying everything, she did not respond and went to be with Jesus! By 9:15am she was gone! So quickly! Life is very fragile, isn't it? RVA staff and students had been praying since I had made the call before 7am that I felt she was very, very sick! The news of her death had to be broken to her dorm girls -Gr.11 girls and staff! What a shock to our whole school!

All the staff tried to be strong for the kids' sake, but each one has taken it hard. I can't believe that she died before me! I know God has a purpose and that she is with Jesus, but it just doesn't seem fair! The doctors feel that the viral infection attacked her heart muscle and then things went very quickly. They will do an autopsy to be sure! They feel that everything possible was done for her!

As I came home, after being up for more than 24 hrs, tired and discouraged, my African worker said to me: 'Shirley RVA is like a garden that God has planted and today he chose to pick one of his very special flowers! What a simple way to look at life - and death!

My heart is heavy, as I wonder what I could have done differently, and yet I know that God is Sovereign and He is Good!

I don't expect all of you to answer, but just wanted you to know how we are feeling today! Thank you again for standing behind us with your prayers! I would not even have made it thru this past night without a lot of prayer!

Still Believing that God is Good

Garry and Shirley Eppy
Garry_Eppy@aimint.org