A DAY IN MY LIFE
by
Joe Mulligan, SJ
Certain days bring a combination of experiences which, seen together, illustrate various aspects of my life and work. Jan. 3 was one of those days.
1)
It began at 8 a.m. with a call from a member of one of the Christian Base Communities I accompany. Her severe stomach pains had continued for a week, ever since she had gone to the emergency room of a public hospital here in Managua in search of diagnosis and treatment.
At that time the doctors had left her on a stretcher unattended for over an hour. Upon arriving at the hospital, I asked the doctor whether he was going to talk with her. He gave me his immediate diagnosis – “she has hysteria, Padre” –and said he was going to send her home with a pain pill. When I asked whether he had examined her, he said “no” but then talked with her for about ten minutes, attached an I.V. which ran for 45 minutes, and discharged her with some prescriptions
When she called me on Jan. 3 she was experiencing more severe stomach pain. I suggested that she go to the emergency room of the military hospital and that I would arrive there to pay the $30. fee for an initial interview and examination. There the doctor began by introducing himself by name (a very good sign) and, accompanied by two assistants, interviewed her in depth and ordered blood tests and an ultrasound. When these did not reveal anything alarming or of an emergency nature, he told her to return on Monday morning to be seen by a specialist.
We were very grateful for the professional attention she had received. Of course, this was on a private-pay basis. Her experience a week earlier at the public hospital illustrated the inadequacy of the public health service, which the vast majority of Nicaraguans must rely on.
2)
After this event in my pastoral social ministry I had a very interesting meeting with my good friend, Rev. Phil Wheaton, followed by lunch with him, his wife Sue, and other friends. Here the talk was all about theology of liberation, the prophet’s calling to be faithful to her task of denouncing injustice and proclaiming the need and possibility of a new world (even when that prophetic word does not produce noticeable results), and the current political realities of Nicaragua and of the U.S.
This event was part of my ministry for social justice and human rights, which has always accompanied my pastoral and social work.
3)
In the same vein, I spent about an hour later that afternoon watching BBC and CNN news, discovering that the Israeli military forces had just invaded Gaza with tanks and thousands of soldiers. What should we do? What can we do here in Nicaragua to say “no” to this escalation of the aggression?
A demonstration was held on Jan. 7 in front of the U.S. embassy, which represents the country which is the leading source of support for Israeli policy. On Jan. 8 I visited local TV stations with my Power Point package and was interviewed on 3 channels.
4)
Around 3 p.m. I received a call from a blind person in Masaya whom I help through my Fund for the Disabled. Very distraught, she asked me to visit a 16-year-old girl who was in critical condition in the oncology ward of the women’s public hospital in Managua.
Several months ago Flor de Lis had had surgery involving the removal of two very large tumors. I did not ask her mother why the doctors had not removed these tumors before they had become so large and had metastasized. Perhaps her family had not taken her to the hospital early on, or perhaps her disease had been misdiagnosed.
The girl was the only patient in an 8-bed ward. A doctor told me she was in very critical condition. No nurse was in sight. Flor de Lis was conscious and able to speak a little, with difficulty. She was bleeding from the mouth and from other places.
With my hand on her forehead, we talked a bit, and she joined me and her mother in saying the Our Father. I said that Jesus is with her and always will be, and she indicated that she trusted in him and in his love.
After a half-hour I said that I had to leave for now but that we would pray for her in the next day’s (Sunday) Masses and that I would return to visit within 24 hours. She waved slightly as I left the ward.
Two hours later her mother called me to report that Flor de Lis was in a coma and that the doctor gave her very little time to live. The mother and aunt wanted to take the girl home, in a rural area about 40 miles away, to die. In addition to spiritual, emotional, and family reasons for this, there is also a practical consideration in these instances: it is simpler to get the patient out of the hospital and home while still alive rather than after death, when a coffin must be found and brought to the hospital morgue and then transported home.
I called one of the Jesuit Volunteers to request that we postpone a supper visit with her family who are in Nicaragua for a week.
Flor de Lis died about half-way home, lying on the floor of the parish panel truck I was driving, with her head cradled in her aunt’s lap. Her grandparents and the rest of the family were waiting for her; relatives removed her from the truck, placed her on a wooden table, and, as is the custom in preparing for the wake at home, tied her mouth shut with a towel. Very few families here use funeral homes because of the expense and because it is customary to have the wake at home. She was buried the next day.
Thus ended “a day in the life....”
