Wednesday, April 9, 2008 ~ A Story from the Dental Team
Perhaps the most difficult part of the Iowa MOST medical mission in Xela has been having to make decisions to turn people away; to say no to their requests for reconstructive surgery, because they are too young to undergo anesthesia, have respiratory problems that could compromise the patient during surgery, or require a procedure that is too complicated and lengthy to complete in the time the team has available in Xela.
The latter condition applied to Severiano, a young man, who needed extensive dental surgery for a wide open cleft of the whole hard and soft palates. He had been scheduled early on Tuesday morning, because dentists Bill LaVelle and Steve Hedlund knew it would require four, possibly five days to complete the two impressions needed, the surgery, and the post-op checks to be certain that the appliance fit correctly so that it didn’t cause a major sore and allowed a sufficient opening for appropriate speech sounds.
Unfortunately, when the dentists began work on Tuesday, they discovered they were in the midst of a hospital remodeling project that started that morning in the dental offices. Equipment, chairs, lights and supplies were removed, and a water pipe broke with a brownish water spreading across the floor. The Iowa MOST dental appointments had to be cancelled for the rest of day. The Severiano’s appointment was moved to 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, but then was cancelled due to the length of time needed to complete his procedure. The time available was shortened even more, because painters would be arriving on Friday afternoon to paint the dental offices.
Severiano arrived at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, even though he knew that his appointment had been cancelled. He pleaded to have surgery. He asked, “Could you do even part of what is needed and then finish the rest when you return another year?” Jan Ahlberg, who was translating, reported, “He begged, really begged for over half an hour, because he wanted desperately to be able to speak clearly.” The answer was sadly, but firmly given: no.
That afternoon, the young man returned and sat quietly in the waiting room. When Jan asked him why he was waiting when he had no appointment, he said he had a gift to give. Jan invited Severiano to come into the dental office and he began to pull beautiful Guatemalan weavings from his sack to present to Bill, Steve & Jan with thanks from his heart. He kept putting his hand to his chest and saying, “Thank you from my heart.” Then he added, “Even though I know you can’t help me this time, you are helping others. Thank you from my heart.” It was an incredibly humbling, deeply touching moment in the life of the medical team at Xela.
