February 1, 2010
By Tim Bartholomew, MD, serving in Cameroon
Tim and his wife, Huyen, are medical doctors with Compassion and Mercy Associates (CAMA) in Cameroon. The following is an adapted excerpt from their January 2010 newsletter about Aminatou,* a former patient.
Aminatou is back. You might remember her from a letter we wrote about a year ago. Because she was shot through her face with an AK47, she had an ankylosed jaw (locked jaw) and a huge palatal fistula (a hole in the roof of her mouth), so she talked with a pronounced nasal tone.
More than a year ago, Huyen and I performed surgery to try to open her jaw, but it opened only about .5 centimeters (less than a quarter of an inch), and her jaw broke in the process. So we repaired her jaw and sent her home a tad better, but disappointed. We also had several opportunities to share the gospel message with her. Aminatou was amazingly interested in what we had to say and spent a lot of time talking with our hospital evangelist.
Another Chance
A few months ago, while spending time on the Mercy Ship, we worked on some fairly extensive oral and maxillofacial surgeries. (Mercy Ships is a global charity that has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.) I got some new ideas, learned some new techniques, and got more gutsy.
Last month we did a more aggressive surgery on Aminatou that included extensive scar and bone excisions. (She had bony fusions throughout her jaw and cheekbones.) After a few hours of rather hard work-voila! Her mouth opened to nearly 4 cm (about 1.5 inches)!
Christmas in January
Using muscle from the side of Aminatou’s head, I could finally get to her palate to repair it. She recovered just fine, and the next day she opened her mouth wide but couldn’t close it all the way. Did I dare be too picky?! Aminatou didn’t seem to care, since she had told me, preoperatively, that all she wanted for Christmas was to be able to open her mouth.
I think Aminatou actually is closing her mouth on the muscle with what jaw she has left, and it’s stopping her from closing all the way. We’re going to fix this as soon as the hole in the palate is healed. I’ve also been doing speech therapy with her, with the help of a speech pathologist I met last year in Cambodia.
One must become a Renaissance doctor here.
We have talked some more about Christ with Aminatou, and she has become friends with our hospital evangelist. But I think now she is in a period of thinking about what we’ve said. We probably won’t see her again, so she can use your prayers.
* Name has been changed.