Jane with a family member of another patient, in her tiara
Perhaps it is because I have three young daughters, but I have become captivated by our latest star patient. Of course her name is Jane Doe - it usually is, it seems. Jane arrived a couple of nights ago on a ventilator after having survived an IED blast which took her left arm... and her family. Tragic, no other words can describe it, and every other word would be just as inadequate.
Jane has not smiled yet and I don't expect her to. I wonder if and when she will have the capacity to smile or be silly with her other 6 year old friends. I wonder what she thinks at all. I wonder if she knows what happened to her family.
Yesterday my wife sent me a care package with some toys for children. There was a Disney princess tiara that I thought she might like. She definitely does, as she wears it throughout the day. After I showed her how to put it on I asked the translator if she wanted to take it off. She looked confused and I didn't want her to think we were making fun of her or being mean in some way that foreigners behave. She vehemently shook her head when the translation was made. She wanted it on.
Last night we received two more children in the ICU: one was bitten on the face by a viper - you don't see that every day in the US. The other was another IED blast victim with shrapnel wounds to the belly, neck, and arm. They should both do well I believe. Viper-boy's father is here with him, and very thankful. I don't know what happened to our latest IED victim's family. As my wife said when she saw the photos above, war is evil.
I want to adopt her, too.
ReplyDeleteHeartbreaking. Tim- if people want to send more stuff to you for kids etc. how do they do that?
ReplyDeleteWhat Dan said, heartbreaking. Where will she go?
ReplyDeleteI heard you might have found a relative?
ReplyDeleteHi all. We struck out on finding a relative, but still looking. If anyone has things kids would like (used stuff is fine) or need, you can send them to me at:
ReplyDeleteCDR Tim Quast
NATO ROLE 3 MME
APO AE 09355...
Thanks for asking and for the comments. I don't know where she will ultimately go. The Int'l Red Cross/Crescent is working on it...
Oops, I misspelled my address. Here it is again:
ReplyDeleteCDR Tim Quast
NATO ROLE 3 MMU
APO AE 09355
I'm gonna try to gather some toys up from my co-workers and mail them to you. I hope this isn't an imposition. I defintely don't want to make more work for you....
ReplyDeleteHi Tim,
ReplyDeleteI'm a friend of Rosemary and Tom's. If it is okay with you, I'll get a box of children's toys together and mail them later this month. As the previous commenter said, I do not want to make more work for you, so please tell me if this is not helpful! Thanks for all you are doing!
Brenda and Dan - no imposition at all, send away! It's unfortunately too easy to distribute toys in this hospital, and we have a translator here who can also get them to the kids outside the first wire. Thanks for your thoughts and generosity.
ReplyDelete