My nephew, Mackenzie had to have surgery yesterday. Emergency surgery to repair a bowel obstruction. Not the way most fourteen-year-olds like to spend a Saturday night.
It started in the wee hours of the morning Saturday. He awakened his mom, my sister Erica, crying out in pain. She went to him and comforted him and asked all the questions a mama asks. She determined the whole bag of blueberries he had consumed was not agreeing with his stomach, but she kept him in her bed the rest of the night so she could keep a close watch- just in case it was something more serious.
He was not feeling much better by morning and wasn't looking so good. He said he hurt too bad to get up and take a shower, causing my sister to get quite concerned. She questioned him some more about the exact location and quality of his pain. Was is sharp, did it feel like cramps, was is nausea??? It felt as though he was being stabbed, he said. Her concern turned to panic when she lifted his shirt to see what she described as aliens trying to get out. He had bumps all across his thin little abdomen. She immediately called 911 and attempted to describe what she was seeing. By this time Mac was not really even talking. He was awake, but writhing in pain. The paramedics arrived and began to ask questions. Erica said it was as if a switch had been turned off. They went from quick! lets help this kid, to oh, he has gas. They've called 911 for gas pains. They went through the motions of doing an assessment, but had made their diagnosis. They tried to persuade my sister to take Mac to the hospital herself. Surely he could make the 30 minute drive, after all, it is likely just gas. She was adamant though that an ambulance come. We live in a rural area and the first responders are EMTs from the local fire department. Once the ambulance arrived the EMT who was certain Mac had a bad case of gas gave them his expert opinion and threw in for good measure, that they should not worry about driving with the lights or sirens, following normal traffic rules would be sufficient. That was around noon. By five Mac was on an operating table.
Lucky for my sister and for Mac, the nurses and doctors were not so quick to diagnose his excruciating pain as gas. Luckily, one look at the dilated loops of bowel that were visible on his abdomen prompted them to put a tube down his nose into his stomach and drain the large amount of fluid that had no place to go. His bowel had twisted around scar tissue from a previous surgery and wrapped around itself, causing a blockage.
By the grace of God and a mama's intuition, there was no damage to the bowel and Mac is recovering in a hospital room. The scenario could have been much less positive had they waited.
In the defense of the EMTs, I'm sure they see more than their share of "emergencies" that are really just folks wanting to skip to the head of the line in the ED. Even I thought she may have been over reacting a bit. She does have some dramatic tendencies, but God gave mamas a sixth sense and her's was screaming out that her baby needed attention right away. Don't ever question a mama's intuition.
